Carry Me Through
by NewHampshireGirl
Summary: Tony,Gibbs, and Vance have returned from Israel and the team is faced with the task of rebuilding, yet again. Post "Aliyah" AU, NOT TIVA. Additional warnings posted inside.
1. Basement Confessionals

**Disclaimers:** I, sadly do not own NCIS or its characters. This story is purely for entertainment value and no money is being made. Not beta read so all mistakes are my own.

**Warnings:** AU, series spoilers, not Tiva, Tony/OC, team as family, incredibly long author's note ahead

**A/N:** I was never opposed to the idea of the show creating a romance between two agents. I was opposed to the show pairing Tony and Ziva. I like both their characters, I do not like them as a romantic pairing. If Cote had stayed and his would have happened I could see their relationship being volatile. Heck, it already was in "Aliyah" and they weren't even involved then.

My problem with Tiva was that we know in the past Tony was abused by his father and that Ziva was raised to be a killer. What made writers think that this pair could ever make it? If it had been the reverse, if it had been Tony that took Ziva down in "Aliyah" we wouldn't even be having this discussion because it would have been labeled as abuse/assault. It bothers me that the writers just glazed over this, ignoring that men can be the victim of abuse as well.

I will not deny that Tony/Ziva had chemistry or were attracted to one another. I just...cannot get onboard that they are "soulmates".

THAT being said, yes this story does introduce a romance between Tony and another agent on his team because quite frankly, with proper writing and a grasp on the characters the show COULD HAVE a romance like this. So, if a romance between two agents is not your thing, I do not mind if you skip over this story all together. It is mostly written like "Safe and Sound" follows what canon has established but weaved into my story.

**As usual your feedback is always welcome, as long as it is doesn't degrade into flames. Enjoy!**

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**Carry Me Through**

Jethro Gibbs wasn't surprised when the door to his house opened and footsteps plodded down the basement stairs. Glancing up he watched as his senior field agent slowly made his way into the cellar, his eyes dull and face expressionless.

It had been a rough few days. Gibbs had been anticipating Anthony DiNozzo stopping by. The younger man was beating himself up over what had happened in Ziva's apartment, blamed himself for her leaving, despite the fact the senior field agent had been under orders from the team leader. "You're late, DiNozzo."

Tony dropped a six pack of beer down onto the work bench. "Yeah, well, Abby wouldn't let me go until I had answered _all _of her questions and then I had to stop for the beer. Was going to stop for a pizza too but then realized I only have one good hand so, flipped a coin for it and beer won out. Beer is probably more of what I need right now anyways. Especially after being grilled by Special Agent Abby. When you don't give her the answers she wants, she becomes scary. She'd make a good interrogator."

Gibbs stopped his sanding and reached for a beer. He popped it open and handed it to his agent. Tony grasped it around the bottle neck, watched as Gibbs opened his own beer, and then with a heavy sigh, whispered, "I really screwed up big this time."

"You were following orders—my orders, DiNozzo. Stop trying to blame yourself. We all make choices. You made yours. Rivkin made his. Ziva made hers."

"I suppose now you're going to tell me that I've got to learn to live with my choices."

He took a sip of his beer. "If you don't, it will eat you alive."

Tony looked away, his green eyes focusing on the unfinished boat in the basement. "Yeah. Figured as much. I just didn't expect her to...leave. I thought she'd come back and we'd work out the problems like we always do. Guess I went too far this time. Broke rule 10—again. Always struggle with that one. Eli David was right on one account—it was personal. And I let that cloud my judgment. I shouldn't have gone over there without back up."

Gibbs shook his head. "No. It probably wasn't your best decision."

"So why didn't the Director discipline me? We both know that he doesn't like me."

"Didn't discipline you because you didn't go there to arrest Rivkin, you went there to talk to Ziva. Situation like that didn't require backup. Technically you didn't break protocol."

For a moment Tony didn't say a word and then he glanced up at the former marine. "So, tell me, why did you choose me over Ziva?"

Gibbs blinked. He took a slow sip of his beer, contemplating his answer. It wasn't a shock that Tony knew about Ziva making Gibbs choose between them. Even though Gibbs had thought the younger man was on the plane when she had posed her question, he should have known better. His back had been to the senior field agent. Of course she had wanted Tony to hear. That way if she got on the plane with them, he'd know what Gibbs' choice had been. She had left Gibbs no way to quietly sweep things under the rug and get Tony transferred without the senior field agent knowing that he had put Ziva first.

It hadn't been as hard of a choice as the Mossad officer thought it was going to be. Tony always came first. He had been on Gibbs team the longest. He was the most loyal. He had stepped aside and allowed Gibbs to have his old job back without so much as batting an eyelash. Although, Gibbs often wondered if the mistreatment that Ziva and McGee had put Tony through, always comparing him to their former boss, waving what they believed to be better qualifications in his face, had anything to do with the fact that Tony had so easily backed down from his promotion. In the team leader's mind Tony was more than capable. It was the whole reason that he had left the young man in charge when he'd left. He never would have done so if he didn't think that Tony was ready.

Ziva's continued treatment of Tony,even after Gibbs came back, had been a red flag. She had never truly trusted Tony. But Tony, he had learnt to trust her and cared for her, perhaps too much for his own good. Gibbs, in the end, wasn't surprised that this whole fiasco had even come to pass. Tony's empathy had gotten the best of him this time.

"Boss? Why did you pick me over her?" Tony asked, his quiet voice breaking into Gibbs' concentration.

"Simple. You wouldn't have made me choose Tony," Gibbs answered. "If you felt that the team was going to suffer because of what happened between you and Ziva, you would have asked Vance to transfer you. Even if that meant going back out to sea for several months. You always put the needs of my team before you. And that is reason enough alone to keep you."

Tony smiled, the faintest of smiles, but it was there. "Thanks, boss."

Gibbs reached out and pat him on the shoulder. "Vance is going to give us time to smooth out some wrinkles before adding a new team member. I think I'll let you and McGee handle that. You were always a better judge of character than I was. It's what makes you so good undercover. You smell a rat a mile away."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I wasn't such a good judge of character when it came to Ziva, boss."

"I never gave you much of a choice," the former marine said, sipping his beer. "Director Shepard assigned her to our team and I owed her."

"Owed her for what, boss?" Tony asked, innocently.

Gibbs suddenly realized that as far as anyone knew, NCIS, Mossad, his team—it had been the marine that had killed Ari. No one knew that Ziva had been at his house that day, that she had been the one to pull the trigger to save his life. It was in that moment that his senior field agent was looking at him incredulously, green eyes retaining some of his sparkle. "Ziva...killed Ari."

Tony's face went pale and his eyes grew wide. "She...she shot her own brother? To save you?"

He winced and laughed, nervously, "Sounds a bit unbelievable now that you say it."

"Boss, why would she do that? Why would she kill her own brother after she vehemently argued that he was innocent?" Tony asked with a shake of his head.

"Guess she played us all, DiNozzo," Gibbs replied sadly coming to the logical conclusion that she had been sent there to murder Ari all along to gain his trust. And it had worked.

Tony plopped down onto the last basement step and leaned back, cradling his beer. "She was good. Made us believe that she was one of us, that she was turning into an investigator. When it really was just to get someone on the inside."

Gibbs sighed and went back to sanding his boat. "She was a trained spy, Tony. We were naïve to think that she was changing. For all we know her father wanted her to come to NCIS as apart of her training."

His senior field agent let out an angry chuckle. "We were ripe for the picking, grieving a member of our team. Fell right into their trap. And Jenny, well, she was Ziva's friend. She would naturally think that you would be the best person to teach her how to be a field agent. Should have seen it coming boss. I've been off my game. For a while now it appears. First Jeanne, then Jenny, Rivkin, and now that list can include Ziva. Wonder where it all went wrong boss? Actually. I think I know the answer to that. Kate. It all went wrong when Kate died."

He was not going to argue that. Kate's death had left a gaping hole in his team. One that he had plugged with someone that couldn't be entirely trusted. Gibbs was going to have to make sure that this time he was extra careful at plugging the hole. Which was one of the reasons that he wanted Tony and McGee to find their next agent, not have Vance just pluck someone out of the blue and place them on the team. Of course, Gibbs got the funny feeling that Vance ran NCIS differently than Jenny did. As much as he had cared for Jenny, in the end it had become obvious that she had just used the office for her own personal wars.

"Kate wasn't your fault either, Tony," the former marine assured his senior field agent.

"Yeah. I know," Tony whispered. "She wasn't your fault either, boss. Wish you'd start believing that."

Gibbs sighed, heavily. As much as he wanted to believe it, the facts were just had to refute. Ari had killed Kate to cause Gibbs pain. And pain it had caused. So much that four years later they were still feeling the ill effects. Movement caught his eye and Gibbs watched as his senior field agent went to retrieve another beer, pop it open, and slug half of it back in one sip. "You should go easy there, DiNozzo. Alcohol and pain killers don't mix."

Tony shrugged. "I flushed the pain killers down the toilet the moment I got home from the hospital. You know I hate them, boss."

It was true, Gibbs knew this. Tony shied away from them as much as possible. The team leader had a vague idea why the young man didn't like prescription pain killers but they never spoke of those theories. "Doctor gave them to you to help."

"Yeah," Tony mumbled, "that's what they used to say to my dad about my mom."

Gibbs paused with his beer bottle pressed to his lips. Tony _never _spoke about his mother. In fact that last time he had heard Tony speak about his mom was three years ago, when he confessed that she drank his sea monkeys. The woman was shrouded in mystery, as was most of Tony's personal life. Slowly he lowered the beer bottle from his mouth and asked, "What did they give your mom, Tony, that didn't work?"

Tony's eyes glistened in the dim lights of the basement. "Nausea medication, pain killers, ya know to dampen the effects of chemo therapy."

"Cancer. Your mother died from cancer."

"Yeah, back then...it was a death sentence. She didn't live very long after the diagnosis. I think she just gave up the will."

Gibbs recalled his own mother being sick with the deadly disease and shuddered. He'd been older than Tony when his mother eventually passed. He'd been old enough to know what was going on, did Tony at the age of eight really understand?

Tony was looking at him now with a faint smile. It was then that Gibbs noticed he'd abandoned the beer and poured himself a jar of bourbon. "Wanna know something funny boss? She was the first woman to break my heart—at the age of eight. Guess it explains why I fear commitment to women, relationships. I don't want my heart broken. And it's also funny that the three times since my mother's death that I've decided to try it, I've had my heart stomped upon."

Pausing, Gibbs studied his senior field agent for a moment. This was the most about his personal life that Tony had divulged to him in years. He knew that the first woman that Tony was speaking of was his fiance, Wendy, who'd left him before their wedding. The second woman was obviously Jeanne Benoit. Despite his better judgment Tony had fallen in love with her and when she'd left, given him the choice of her or his job, it had devastated him. But he was struggling with who the third woman was. Someone before the two had met? "Who's number three, Tony?"

"Isn't it obvious, boss?" Tony retorted, lightly. Upon the stern look that his boss gave him, he chuckled, huskily. "Wow. Guess I did a better job of hiding it than I thought."

Gibbs watched as Tony downed his bourbon, poured himself another jar and then poured Gibbs a jar. He slid the mason jar towards his boss, who took it in his hand, contemplating drinking it. One of them was going to have to be sober during this...soul bearing? Heart to heart? The former marine wasn't sure what to call it.

Tony swirled the bourbon around in the jar. "Ziva," he whispered, "the third woman was Ziva. I was foolish enough to think that...she had feelings for me. If she would have asked, I would have broken rule 12, boss. Given how everything went down I guess it's a good thing that I didn't break rule 12."

"What stopped you?" Gibbs questioned. His voice wasn't harsh or accusing. It was soft, gentle, knowing that Tony needed to get this off his chest, to get closure. Or at least get closer to it.

"Don't know to tell you the truth. Little voice in the back of my head," Tony mused, "Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder telling me it wasn't a good idea. Who knows really."

A faint little wince crossed the senior field agent's face but Gibbs caught it. "DiNozzo, if you're in pain you should have skipped the alcohol and taken something."

Tony grinned, sheepishly. "It really doesn't hurt that much anymore."

Gibbs frowned. "Yeah? Why are you rubbing your shoulder, the one that _isn't _injured?"

For a second a look of fear passed over Tony's face and the team leader knew he'd caught him. He just wasn't sure what he'd caught him in. Tony's hand dropped from his shoulder and his shoulders slumped. "I confronted Ziva, after Eli David questioned me. I thought if we had it out that things would go back to normal. She...she was a little angrier than I thought. Probably the third dumbest thing I've ever done—confront an angry Mossad assassin after killing her boyfriend."

"Tony," Gibbs cautioned, "what did she do to you?"

"Took me down, shoved her gun into my chest."

Blinding, cold rage enveloped the team leader. What she did was unforgivable in his mind. Partners were supposed to have each other's sixes. They were not supposed to turn on them like that. It was one of the reasons Tony had left Baltimore. He couldn't betray a man that had had his back for two years, he couldn't betray his partner. Ziva had done just that by physically assaulting the senior field agent. "She did what?" he spat, angrily.

Immediately Tony knew he had confessed about the confrontation. His eyes flashed with fear, remorse. "Nothing. She did nothing."

Gibbs grabbed his senior agent by the shoulder, gave him a little shake for good measure. "Tony, damn it, do not play the loyal St. Bernard right now. What she did was unforgivable no matter what wrongs she thought you committed against her."

"Maybe I deserved it. I pushed and pushed until she snapped. Know the saying boss? Don't poke a sleeping bear? Well, I poked an already enraged bear."

"You didn't deserve that kinda treatment from her. You were following _my _orders. If anything she should have taken her anger out on me."

"That would have been a pay-per-view event," Tony mused drily, pouring himself another jar, not caring at this point that he was going to be drunk as a skunk.

Gibbs softened his gaze on the young man. "Tony, why didn't you tell me?"

Tony looked away every so briefly, then downed his drink. "I knew if I told you, you'd be pissed. And then you'd demand that Vance take her off our team, and I just...I couldn't be the one that was responsible for putting the team through that again."

Damn him and his _the team comes first _attitude. He felt for the young man, he really did. "Tomorrow, you get checked out by Ducky."

Softly, Tony smiled. "Yes boss."

Gibbs took a small sip of his bourbon and set the jar down. He reached out and pat Tony on the back and guided him towards the steps. "Come on, guest room is all set up for you."

Tony, like the loyal puppy that he was, obediently let Gibbs lead him up the steps towards the guest room. "Thanks, boss," he slurred. "For listening. Never really had someone do that for me before. Hey, if the federal agent thing doesn't workout for ya, you would make a great shrink."

"Bite your tongue," Gibbs snapped. If the younger agent hadn't been so unsteady on his feet thanks to the alcohol he would have head slapped him. But that would have knocked the young man completely off his feet. Slowly he helped Tony into the guest room, sat him on the bed and pulled his shoes off.

Tony groaned and fell back against the pillows. "Boss," he said, "I'm really sorry that I screwed up—again."

Gibbs sighed. "We've been through this, DiNozzo. You were following orders. We all make choices. Live with yours."

Tony was silent for a moment and the older man wondered if perhaps he had passed out from the alcohol. "Does it get any easier? This living with the choices you make thing?"

_No, it most certainly does not, _Gibbs thought, woefully. He had made a lot of bad decisions in his life. Some of them did not have far reaching consequences, some of them haunted his thoughts. His relentless pursuit of Ari that lead to Kate being killed in the line of duty was one of them. But Tony did not need to hear that. He needed to hear that yes, it did get better over time, or once the team leader fell asleep on the sofa the young man would be down in the basement finishing off the beer and bourbon. "Yeah," he finally lied, "yeah eventually it gets better. Ya just gotta give it time, Tony."

In the darkness Tony lifted his head to look at his boss in the light of the hall behind him. "Guess it's little comfort, huh?"

"Sure. But little is better than none."

With a heavy sigh, Tony fell back against the pillows. "Real, sorry boss, for the mess I made for you."

Gibbs rolled his eyes and again resisted the urge to go head slap his senior field agent. "Tony. Will you stop apologizing and go to sleep."

"Yes, boss."

"And DiNozzo."

"Yeah?"

"Tomorrow—after you get checked out by Ducky—you can start cleaning up that mess by finding us a new agent."

He lifted his head and in the low lights Gibbs could see his trademark grin across his face. "On it boss."


	2. Ultimate Betrayal

**Warnings: **Minor spoilers for "Yankee White.", "See No Evil", "Balitmore", "Kill Ari", "Silver War", and "Judgement Day".

**A/N: **Thank you everyone for your support! I'm glad that I am not the only one who has these views on Tiva. I plan to work into this story that Tony has his eyes opened to how wrong a relationship it would have been for him. I think there were times he was thinking it, for example in "Damned If You Do" it was Gibbs that gave him the silent communication to follow Ziva outside where she promptly shoved him in the friend zone. If he was in love with her, he wouldn't have needed Gibbs to gesture that he should follow her. Again, IMO of course.

Next up, Ducky checks our boy out and is disturbed by what happened. There's also going to be a new case involved which sets up the introduction of the OC in the chapter. BTW this case takes place of the drug one that Tony flashed back to in "Truth or Consequences" Let me tell you how excited I am to get to that chapter of Saleem and Tony. Until then, enjoy!

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In the morning Tony found himself in a considerable amount of pain. The hairline fracture in his arm that he had sustained in his fight with Michael Rivkin hurt. His chest hurt from where Ziva had shoved her gun into him. And then there was his headache courtesy of his drinking too many beers and bourbons the night before.

Pain that was clear on his face when Gibbs dragged him into autopsy to see their resident doctor.

"Gibbs, when you said that you returned from Israel with Anthony safe from Eli David's talons, I had assumed he was in one piece," Donald Mallard drawled, studying the senior field agent.

"Yeah, well, so did I," Gibbs said with a slight smirk, "that is until he polished off a bottle of bourbon in my basement last night."

Tony winced, from the comment or from the pain he was in, he wasn't really sure at this point. He just wanted to sleep. Curl up into a tight little ball and forget the trip to Israel, forget why he had been forced to go there in the first place. Of course, Gibbs and Ducky had other plans.

Ducky gestured for him to climb up onto the autopsy table, even though it caused a great deal of pain to do so. "I apologize, Anthony," the elderly medical examiner when he saw the pained expression that passed over the senior field agent's face. "Mister Palmer, bring the x-ray machine."

Jimmy Palmer, one pitiful look at Tony, hurried off to complete the doctor's wishes. Tony gritted his teeth and tried to breath through the throbbing in his shoulder.

"Anthony, if you would, please remove your shirt," Ducky said, pausing to give Tony some time to make a wise crack, however he was disheartened when the young man didn't oblige. Something had to be troubling him.

Gibbs concern only grew with the lack of a smart ass response or a movie reference. He had been expecting Tony to stop by his basement the night before, had even expected some of the venting that the young man had done last night, however he was not prepared for Tony's silence.

Tony gingerly undid the buttons on his shirt and slid it off with the help of Ducky, vaguely aware of the concerned looks that his two friends gave him. He knew when he was silent it worried everyone around him, but the only thing that he could focus on now was getting his shirt off without screaming in pain. And if he was completely honest with himself he really was not in the mood to joke around.

Ducky pressed his fingers into Tony's shoulder and frowned when a hiss emanated from Tony's lips. "Anthony, I read your medical report from the hospital. You fractured your radius and had a few bruises, but now I see that your chest is swollen considerably, your shoulder is dislocated _and _you have developed even more bruising on your chest and back."

"Is that all, Ducky?" Tony cracked, trying to make a pitiful attempt at humor to lighten the mood.

"Anthony, you've been assaulted!" Ducky exclaimed, not amused in the slightest. "Did this happen to you over in Israel? Because if it did, you should report it to Director Vance immediately."

Burying his face in his hands, Tony just wanted to drown the world out. "Can you just patch me up so we can forget about it?"

Ducky's eyes flickered towards Gibbs, who gave the silent approval. With a heavy sigh, and another utterance at how he thought Tony should report this to the director, the medical examiner wrapped his injured shoulder up, did some x-rays on the senior field agent's chest and then sent him on his way.

Tony was more than eager to get out of autopsy. Scurrying upstairs to his desk, Tony bit back the pain as he tossed the medication that Ducky had given him into the trash. He didn't need to give Gibbs anymore reason to bench him by taking the prescription pain killers. He was a big boy, he could deal with the pain. The pain reminded him of his failure and what he had to fix. Pain killers would only make him incoherent and he couldn't be incoherent. Finding a new agent for their team was no easy task. Gibbs didn't just take anyone. It had to be earned, it had to be well deserved.

He thought back to all the agents that had been assigned to the once two-man team of Gibbs and DiNozzo. Many of them hadn't lasted a week. Vivian Blackadder had lasted three. From that point forward, Director Morrow had decided that perhaps it was best to trust the former marine's judgment, since he had trusted him when it came to Tony. He smiled, softly to himself thinking about how Kate Todd had been hired in the same way as he had. Impressing Gibbs just when they found reasons that they had to walk away from the job. His had been a dirty partner that he couldn't betray, Kate had resigned because of her relationship with a Marine who served on Air Force One.

_How did you get into NCIS?_

_I smiled._

Partial truth. Tony had thought that maybe, sometime later down the road he could tell Kate the real story, that just like her he'd worked a case with Gibbs. And just like her at the end of said case he needed a new job. He did smile at the woman working at the Human Resource desk. Perhaps he did get the job because he'd smiled.

Even Timothy McGee had been chosen by Gibbs. Working all those cases with the team during Kate's first year, the young, green probie had caught the attention of the former marine. He'd caught the attention of Tony as well but he would never admit that.

With a heavy sigh, Tony went about his work of _fixing the mess. _ After Kate had died this was how he had pictured things going. Recruits would be presented to them and Gibbs would make a decision on if they were worthy enough to fill her empty desk. But that wasn't the way things went. Jenny Shepard had forced Ziva upon them. Despite the unspoken rule that no one was forced onto Jethro Gibbs team, Ziva had been allowed to stay.

Tony hadn't trusted her. Not at first. After all it was her half-brother that had murdered Kate. Over time they had developed trust, a fleeting friendship. Or so he thought.

"You're in early," McGee announced as he came into the bullpen. "Thought Vance was going to give you some time off?"

"He did. I have other things to do," Tony answered honestly.

McGee made his way around the desk and glanced at Tony's computer screen. He was surprised when the senior field agent did not try to hide what he was doing. "By other things you mean looking at old joint operation cases?"

Tony tapped the pen in his hand against the desk. "Call it a hunch."

"A hunch? We don't have an active case right now," McGee pointed out. "Vance was under the impression you were going to take those days."

"Not a hunch about a case," Tony said printing out a file. "A hunch about filing the empty desk."

Confusion settled across McGee's face. Even after all these years working with Tony, the older man always seemed to find ways to surprise him. "Ok," he said taking the bait, "How does a joint operation cases with NCIS have with finding a new agent for our team?"

Grinning, Tony took the file form his printer. "McGee, how did I get hired?"

"Ah...Gibbs was undercover in Baltimore and you worked together," McGee offered.

"And Kate?"

"Worked with you on a case on Airforce One."

"And what about you, Probie?"

"I'd worked with Gibbs, you, and Kate for a couple of cases. He got my promotion and assigned to D.C."

Tony quirked an eyebrow. "Do you see a pattern McGee?"

McGee stared at him for a moment, not sure what to say. He had never thought about it before but it suddenly was right there in front of him. Gibbs handpicked his team—with the exception of Ziva, she had been placed on the team under orders from Mossad and Jenny Shepard. Before, when Kate had been alive the team had worked well together, there had not been secrets. All the agents had a comfortable relationship with one another. It was probably looked at as dysfunctional to outsiders but they'd been happy.

Until Kate had died. And things had spiraled out of control. McGee had been young, green still. Afraid to even visit Kate's body in the morgue. When he finally did it had been Tony that had found him, bucked him up in his own way.

His stomach twisted in knots. The team had been in pain. Ripe for the picking. And it was entirely possible that Mossad had taken the opportunity of a new director, a grieving team, to plant their insider. As much as it pained him to admit, maybe Ziva hadn't really been loyal to them at all.

Which was the reason Tony was looking outside of the agency, outside connections to the agency. He had been hurt the most of all by Mossad, by Ziva. It only made sense. "So, now what?"

"Now...I just have to find the right fit," Tony mumbled.

"Gibbs know you're doing this?"

"He asked me too."

"Are you sure that you're the best person to make this decision?" Tony's heated glare at him, caused McGee to back pedal a little. "Sorry. You're the SFA, of course you can make the decision."

Tony went back to work and McGee went to his desk to start his day shifting through cold cases. It was relatively quiet in the bullpen until the senior field agent announced that he was going for coffee.

McGee chuckled. "Are you sure you're going to be able to carry all that being wrapped up like a mummy? Want me to tag along to help you?"

Feigning a hurt expression, Tony holstered his gun and put his credentials in his pocket. Before he could head towards the elevator, Ducky stepped off and stalked towards the senior field agent, eyes dark and the young man could only surmise that Gibbs had disclosed what had happened to him in Israel. Tony swallowed, eyes darting towards his team leader and the medical examiner, and then fleeting towards McGee who was oblivious to the whole situation. "My x-rays come back with something?"

Ducky shook his head. "No, no, your x-rays were fine. You are lucky, Anthony. But how could you fail to mention that it was _Ziva _that did this to you?"

Tony's shoulders slumped. "I thought...guess I thought she would be coming back with us. So, when it happened in Tel Aviv, I kept my mouth shut. To protect her."

"Protecting her, Anthony, is what got you into this whole bloody mess in the first place," the medical examiner grumbled with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, consider my lesson learned," Tony replied, softly.

McGee frowned, clearly missing something. Hadn't Tony sustained the injury in his fight with Rivkin? Abby had been worried that the Israeli's might rough Tony up a bit when they questioned him but he had told her not to worry about it. Gibbs and Vance were going ot be there with him and McGee didn't think they would allow Mossad to hurt Tony. Now, he was beginning to wonder if perhaps her fears were justified.

Ducky shook his head furiously at Tony now. "She betrayed you, the ultimate betrayal, Anthony! You were an injured, unarmed man. Her partner. She could have done serious damage to you! It is not an act worthy of protection."

Tony set his jaw. "I'm fine, Ducky, really I am."

"You should be home resting," Ducky admonished him. "Director Vance gave you three days leave time. As your doctor, I recommend that you take it."

"I'm fine, Ducky, seriously. Vance has me on desk duty anyways, that's as good as going home to rest. I'm more useful here."

McGee could see that Ducky wanted to argue with him a little bit more, but Tony pointed at his watch, took off towards the elevator and was gone. With a heavy sigh, McGee glanced at his desk, at the stacks of cold case files that had to be shifted through. And now that their senior field agent was off and running in who knew what direction, McGee knew that he'd be doing the work by himself for a while at least. He briefly glanced at Gibbs, who had instructed Ducky back to autopsy. When the medical examiner was gone, the junior agent asked, "Boss? Did Ziva really hurt Tony?"

Gibbs shoulders stiffened. "Yeah. While we were in Tel Aviv."

"What? Why?"

"She was mad at him."

McGee wasn't sure if that response was supposed to make this whole situation better. He suddenly felt angry. And he wasn't one to normally feel anger. Annoyance. Irritability. Crankiness. Sure, he felt all those things. But pure anger was not one of them. The thought that Ziva had taken down her partner—her injured partner, well that made him angry. Ducky was right, it had been the ultimate betrayal.

* * *

Tony stepped inside _D.C Beans. _He hadn't been there since Kate had passed away. It was her favorite coffee shop and it just reminded him too much of his fallen partner. Even now as he made his way to the counter to buy his coffee, his heart was heavy.

He tried not to think about what would have happened if he'd seen Ari before the rogue agent could kill Kate but now and then those thoughts crept into his mind and he couldn't shake them.

"Rough week, sir?" the young man behind the counter asked when he saw Tony's sling.

"You don't know the half of it," Tony muttered before placing his order.

Actually it had been more than a rough week. It had been a rough _year._ Starting with Jenny's untimely death last May. Had it really been that long? Somedays it felt like it happened yesterday and others like it happened years ago. If he was honest that was when his relationship with Ziva had began to go downhill. He had his guilt and drinking to blame for that. And, she was right, he could have called her while they were separated, but he hadn't. Instead he'd drowned his sorrows in being a tight ass agent afloat and the occasional drink at bars while the ship was on liberty.

He wasn't really sure why he never called Ziva, because according to her he had killed Rivkin because he was jealous. _Well, if I loved you Ms. Dah-vid, why the hell didn't I reach out after the team was disbanded? _

Tony had never asked himself that question before. And suddenly things began to align and make sense while he waited for his coffee. His feelings for Ziva had been a one way street and he knew it, even if he didn't want to believe it. Was he that desperate for love? Sure, he probably was. After all he'd seen his heart stomped upon by Jeanne, didn't have anyone to turn to after she left, and had been told all his life by his father that he was going to amount to nothing. So, yes, in short, he had been desperate for love. Still was, actually.

Rubbing a hand over his face, he reached into his pocket to get money when the barista brought his coffee back. He paid for the latte, tipped the young kid well, and left, feeling even more defeated and depressed than he had before stepping foot into the coffee shop.

_I miss you Kate, _he thought, sadly. _Everything changed when you died._

Tony crossed the street to get to his car. Kate wouldn't want him to wallow in self-pity. She'd want them all to move on and keep doing their jobs, to keep righting the wrongs they saw in the world. He unlocked the car and climbed inside, carefully putting his latte into the cup holder. As he reached for the door his cell phone rang. "DiNozzo."

"_Got a call out." _Gibbs reported sounding...well angry. "_Female officer was raped and left for dead. She's at Washington General." _

"I'll meet you there," Tony answered, hanging up. Quickly he got himself situated and headed towards the hospital. _So much for desk duty. _Little did he know just how much time this case was going to consume. Little did he knew how much this case was going to change his life.


	3. Detective Callahan

**Warnings: **Topics of rape, drugs and alcohol

**A/N: **We're finally going to get our first look at the OC. I tried to write her into the story much like Kate, McGee, and Ellie were written in. Gibbs picked them because he saw something in them and he wasn't forced to take a member on (yeah, wasn't a big fan of Jenny Shepard). Vance may be a jerk at times but he isn't using the office like Jenny did. Different debate for a different day haha.

**Thank you everyone for taking the time to leave a review, or send me a PM, favorite or follow this story. It has been nice to have some friendly conversations with people on this site. I continue to be appalled and disgusted by the barrage of hate and insults being thrown at the cast and crew and anyone that has anything favorable to say about Season 11. **

* * *

If ever the team was lacking a feminine touch it was now. There was no amount of sensitivity training that could help Gibbs, Tony or McGee when it came to interviewing a distraught rape victim.

Hours sitting with her turned to days and days turned to weeks. Tony's injuries had mostly healed and he'd taken the sling off, much too soon in Ducky's eyes but it was a frustrating reminder of everything that had gone wrong in May. Their frustrations were really starting to escalate as well. He'd nearly come to physical blows with their victim's rather boorish boyfriend the last time they had gone to interview her.

Gibbs had saved him from that particularly nasty situation, sending him back to headquarters and thus benching him for the rest of the week. Tony had taken the hit in the chin like usual, but inside he was screaming, spiraling out of control. He needed a release of some kind, an outlet for his anger, and sadly his options were lacking.

Staying late to look over the case wasn't helping matters. A month now had passed and even though the hospital had gathered all the forensic evidence that they were going to need once they did have a suspect in custody, that was their problem. They couldn't find a suspect. Amber had gone out drinking with her girlfriends at a seedy bar in downtown Baltimore and been drugged. She woke up in the hospital, battered, bruised, barely recalling anything but trying to fight off her attacker.

Even her sketch of the man she claimed to have raped her wasn't helping. It was too organic, looked like any guy on the street. And the most disturbing aspect off all, was that their guy had a fetish because despite being found wearing a Naval officer's uniform, Amber was actually a marine.

He could see her embarrassment of the whole situation every time he went to talk to her. She was a marine. _This _wasn't supposed to happen to her. But it had, and NCIS was trying to do its best to solve it. It was slow going and it was making Amber more and more angry and distant and she didn't want to talk them anymore. Another reason why he'd almost come to blows with the boyfriend yesterday. He'd wish Gibbs had just let him go at it.

It would have provided him an outlet to his pent up emotions. It would have felt _good. _He didn't care that he was still recovering from a nasty brawl just a month ago. He was itching for a fight, itching for...something to alleviate his tension. And sitting here, staring a case file until he was blue in the face was not going to do that.

Tony slammed the folder shut and grabbed his gear, storming out of the bullpen knowing that if this case wasn't solved soon it was going to consume his team and destroy them.

"Hey, DiNozzo," a voice said and he turned to see Peter, one of their dispatchers gesturing for him to wait. "Got something you might be interested in?"

"Unless it's a hot girl, I highly doubt that," Tony snapped, stopping his progress so Peter could catch up.

"Tip on the Amber Hamel case. Boston detective thinks there might a link to a case up there. Told her to stop by tomorrow and chat with you," Peter said with a grin. "Who knows? Maybe she's hot."

* * *

Detective Natalie Callahan winced at the bright orange walls of NCIS which seemed to be accented by a rather large skylight. She had wanted to journey to D.C five months ago when a woman's body had gotten tangled in lobster traps off out of the Boston Harbor, wearing a Captain's uniform. After it had been discovered that the woman had not been military and they couldn't identity her, it seemed natural to contact NCIS or the FBI. Something just didn't add up in her eyes and Natalie had researched beyond their small city and found that there were fifteen open cases with a similar method of operation.

All her profiling instincts told her that their suspect was Navy or at least had ties to the Navy. Why else would he be dressing up the women his was targeting in uniform?

Her arms firmly around the stack of files she had pulled to bring here, Natalie stepped off the elevator and into that horribly painted room. The agent that had been assigned to escort her upstairs led the way into a cluster of desks. Quickly assessing the situation she observed two men working, both of similar height and age.

"DiNozzo," the agent said, garnering the attention of one of the men, "this lady thinks she has something for the Amber Hamel case."

His eyes were suddenly on her and she felt completely stripped down, they were intense, filled with emotions and not to mention they were a really pretty shade of green. He stood then, pulling himself up to his full height, straightening his suit coat over broad shoulders and a strong chest. "Thanks, Dave," he said to the agent, "I'll take it from here."

Natalie watched as the agent who had escorted her up nodded and walked away. DiNozzo moved around his desk coming to stand in front of her. She instantly felt his presence and gazed up at him. "The woman on the tip line said I should…I should talk to you," she said, anxiously. "She said your team...your team was working on a similar case."

"We've been chasing dead leads for almost four weeks now," DiNozzo replied. "Anything you can tell us Detective Callahan is going to be extremely helpful."

"I don't know how helpful it's really going to be—but I think your case is linked to several others across the country."

DiNozzo crossed his arms over his chest. "Go on."

Natalie licked her lips, anxiously. "Five months ago a woman's body was found snagged on a lobster trap in Boston Harbor. She was wearing a military uniform but when we ran her prints through AFIS we didn't get any hits. She was labeled as Jane Doe and her case was logged in our cold case files. I think…I think our perp is either currently in the Navy or…was in the Navy."

"Why do you think that?" he asked, gently.

"Because he's dressing up his victims like officers. Maybe a female officer humiliated him and this is his way of getting back. Of course, there would be an entire pattern of sociopathic behavior before this but until we actually have him in custody it's all conjecture."

DiNozzo smiled, gently. "Of course. Why do you think this woman was killed by a repeat offender?"

Natalie held out the files in her hands. "I found fifteen other open cases with a similar MO. Quite frankly, I'm surprised NCIS hasn't been brought in yet—all the victims were found in coastal cities when Navy ships were in port. Now, I don't know much about the Navy, but all the women who were found were in proper uniform for their depicted rank. That signals he has to have _some _knowledge of the Navy."

"Fifteen?" DiNozzo repeated taking the files from her.

"Yes," Natalie said, with a nod. "I'm really the only one that looked this up?"

DiNozzo raised an eyebrow at her and chuckled. "Well, we've been solely operating on the basis of this being a one time thing, considering our victim is alive."

Natalie was startled. _That _didn't fit the MO. "She survived?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately she doesn't remember much. Could be traumatic shock."

"Is there a possibility that she could regain her memory?"

"Doctors don't know at this point," DiNozzo said, closing the file. "Can you walk and talk at the same time?" He didn't give her time to answer and was immediately walking away. The other agent titled his head in the direction that DiNozzo had gone and Natalie took off at a jog to catch up with him. "Curious, how did you find out about Amber?"

Natalie finally managed to match his long stride. "I had search filters set up on my computer that alerted me to certain trigger words about this case. I caught a news report of NCIS and Metro police asking if anyone knew anything to come forward, that a young marine had been raped in Baltimore, dressed in a Navy uniform. It reminded me of the woman that we found, dressed in military uniform not being in the Navy at all."

DiNozzo pressed the button for the elevator and stepped aside to let her get in first. He hit the button for the floor they wanted and the elevator responded in kind, descending. "Smart thinking, Detective."

_Well at least someone thinks so, _Natalie thought as the pair stepped out of the elevator and made their way through a set of glass, sliding doors. At the sound of the doors opening a small, stately looking man glanced up at them and smiled despite the fact that he was in the middle of an autopsy.

"Ah, Anthony," the medical examiner said in a Scottish accent. "What brings you down here? Is it your arm? I told you not to take that sling off before it was too soon."

"Hairline fracture is healed, Ducky. My arm is fine," DiNozzo replied, peaking Natalie's curiosity. "Detective Callahan thinks we might have a serial killer on the loose regarding our rape victim, Amber Hamel."

Ducky blinked and smiled at Natalie. "Did Metro send you over here to speak with us?"

Natalie shook her head. "No…I came...I'm from Boston."

"Boston? Our case has connections in Boston?"

"I think it does."

DiNozzo held up her file. "Fifteen other cases that have a similar MO. It looks like our girl got lucky and survived, Ducky."

Ducky's face grew serious. "Well, I guess it is quite possible that the killer didn't finish because someone stumbled upon him or startled him. She was found at the park, plenty of things there that could have spooked him into just leaving her there figuring she would end up dead. I'm wondering, though, my dear, what brought you to this conclusion?"

Natalie's gray eyes flicked between the two men. "It just didn't seem…well, it didn't seem normal that a Jane Doe would be found snagged on a lobster trap dressed in a Navy captain's uniform and then not actually be in the Navy. So I did...some digging on my spare time to see if my hunch was right."

"So, you used your gut?" DiNozzo supplied, grinning.

"Sure. I guess if that's what you want to call it."

"Has this young lady been introduced yet to Gibbs? I think he'd like her."

DiNozzo continued to grin even as his cell phone rang and he excused himself to go speak on it.

Natalie waited until he was out of earshot to ask, "Who is Gibbs?"

"You're looking at him," a voice said behind her as another man came up to the table. "Hey Duck, been thinking about the Amber Hamel case. Can I pick your brain? Something's been bugging me about it."

"Ah, your timing is impeccable as always, Jethro," Ducky replied, smiling warmly at her. "Ms. Callahan here was just bringing Anthony and I up to speed on a serial killer in Boston. Seems he likes to dress his victims up in uniform."

Gibbs turned towards her then. She could see a man with silent authority, former marine judging by the way he composed himself, and had startling blue eyes that she felt like were digging into her soul. "You find another victim up in Boston?"

Natalie nodded her head. "Five months ago. She got stuck on a lobster trap. Otherwise she would have floated out to the Atlantic. We never could identify her. Theory is that she was a runaway or prostitute abducted off the street. But…I found fifteen other cases with identified victims throughout the entire country."

"You've got my attention, Ms. Callahan."

"When our Jane Doe was discovered not to be military I searched on the FBI database for open cases in the Boston area with a similar method of operation," Natalie started, "There were two others that happened over the course of two years. _But _when I broadened the search I found the thirteen other cases spanning over a decade. Agent DiNozzo has my file."

DiNozzo returned as if on cue, snapping his phone shut and handed the file over to Gibbs. "That was Washington General. Amber was just admitted for attempting to commit suicide."

Gibbs' eyes grew dark as he nodded and briefly glanced at the file before handing it over to Ducky. "Take a look at this Duck, come up with a profile."

"Will do, Jethro," Ducky replied, heading towards his desk as both Gibbs and DiNozzo left autopsy. Natalie was left standing there confused as to what she was supposed to do next. The agent had told her not to go anywhere in the building without an escort so…

"HEY! Callahan?" Gibbs snapped, good-naturedly as he poked his head back into the room. "Are you coming with us or not?"

Natalie glanced at Ducky, who gestured with his hands to follow, mouthing the words, "Go. Go." She smiled at him and turned on her heel, chasing after Gibbs and DiNozzo. She slid between the two tall men just before the doors of the elevator closed.

Gibbs hit the button to bring them to the garage. "How do you feel about getting your hands dirty while you're visiting us, Callahan?"

"Meaning?"

"I'd like it if you interview Amber."

"Really?"

"You'll find that I'm rather a bastard at times and DiNozzo, let's just say doesn't always have the softest touch when it comes to women. And my team has been getting no where with her. Perhaps a new, fresh face will be what she needs."

Natalie glanced over her shoulder at DiNozzo. Yeah, she could picture him being a ladies man. He had the looks after all, but there was something in his eyes that told her he was more than what he let on. She glanced back at Gibbs. "Okay. I'll do it. Does that mean the Boston PD is officially working with NCIS on this case?"

Gibbs raised his chin slightly. "You came to NCIS, you tell me."

"I think we can mutually benefit from a joint operation, Agent Gibbs," she replied with a smile.

"Me too," Gibbs said, grinning, "me too."

* * *

Tony noticed that Natalie was a natural when it came to interviewing victims. Of course, she probably had more experience in this than his probie did at this kind of thing because she was a cop.

Already he could tell that Amber was opening up more to her, felt more at ease around her friendly smile. It was easy to trust her with her girl-next-door looks and pretty smile. She looked more like she should be doing advertisements for Cover Girl than chasing down bad guys and both Tony and Gibbs were suddenly reminded the gaping hole that was missing on their team and still needed to be filled.

Natalie brushed her long brown hair behind her slender shoulder and looked at Amber, gently. "Amber, I know it's hard but I really, really need you to think back about the night you went out to the bar with your friends. Anything you can remember might be helpful, even if its just a smell or something you ate."

"I do remember smelling a pipe...like my grandfather used to smoke," Amber said, softly, tiredly.

"That's very good, Amber," Natalie encouraged her. "You told Agent Gibbs and DiNozzo in your first interview that he was wearing black. Was it a tee-shirt, sweatshirt-back pants?"

Amber closed her eyes tightly. "A tee-shirt...I...I think. I don't know, Detective. It's blurry."

Natalie gave the hand she was holding a squeeze. "That's okay. You're doing great. Did he speak to you at all?"

"Once...when I...when I was trying to fight him off...he said he liked it rough too."

"Was his voice deep? Nasally? High pitched?"

"Deep...very, very deep."

"Did it sound like someone you know?"

Amber shot her glare. "What? NO!"

Natalie squeezed her hand again, to calm her. "Amber, I'm just covering all bases here. Alright?"

"F-fine."

"In your report you told the agents you had been drinking. Did anyone buy you a drink that night at the bar?"

"S-someone sent a round of shots over. We...we never found out who they were from."

Natalie nodded her head and leaned forward. "This is important, Amber. When you left the bar, where were your friends? Did they leave with you?"

Amber shook her head. "N-no. They said...they told the agents they put me in a cab to go home. I don't understand, Detective! Why didn't they come with me!" She dissolved into a fitful of sobs then just as her boyfriend came back into her room. He roughly grabbed Natalie by her shoulder and pulled her out of the chair she was sitting in and tossed her in the director of the two agents. She went crashing into Tony who managed to catch her and break her fall.

Gibbs quickly found himself having to defuse the situation again and he was pretty certain that if Natalie hadn't landed in his SFA's arms, Tony was going to finally punch the guy. A hospital room free-for-all was not what the lead agent needed. "Detective Callahan is from the Boston PD. She was just asking Amber some questions related to her case."

"Fantastic," the boyfriend snarled. "Why don't you take the pretty little Yankee girl and get the hell out?"

"We were just leaving," Gibbs informed him, silently ushering Tony and Natalie out of the room.

"Boss, that bastard pulls another move like that again-"

"I'll beat him down myself, DiNozzo, okay? Right now, I want you and Natalie to go back to that bar."

Tony blinked and looked at Natalie briefly. "And look for what, exactly?"

Gibbs shrugged. "At this point," he said, "anything that's going to help us nail the son of a bitch that did this to the wall."


	4. Fits Our Needs

**Warnings: **None for this chapter.

**A/N: **Sorry that it has been so long that I updated but I just did not feel like writing. I was completely discouraged by some anon reviews that I have since deleted claiming that this story was hateful and disgusting. I didn't think I was bashing Ziva in anyway. Just that at this point in the series I do not think she could be trusted. Doesn't mean I hated the character and I've read/seen far worse regarding hate being spewed at Ziva or any of the other characters. I do not want to shut anon reviews off so I have gone to moderating them. So, if you are a person that leaves a guest review don't be alarmed if it doesn't post right away :)

Moving forward, if you recall Tony and Natalie have gone back to the bar and Gibbs is going to be getting some insight from Ducky on our new gal. Enjoy!

* * *

Tony pulled the Charger up outside of a rundown bar in an equally as run down part of Baltimore. He shut the vehicle down and yanked the keys out of the ignition. "Just so you know," he told Natalie, "the owner, he ah, well he doesn't like NCIS too much."

Natalie glanced at him, with a puzzled look. "Why? What did you do to him? Rough him up a bit while questioning him?"

"Ah, no...just well...might have called a favor into a buddy of mine to do a raid one night and do random ID checks," Tony said. "Turns out, they were serving underage patrons alcohol."

"How did the owner find out it was you that called in a favor?" Natalie asked.

Tony scowled as he put the keys into his pocket and opened his door to get out. "My buddy might have let it slip that it was NCIS that gave them the tip." He slammed the door shut and looked over the top of the car at her. "Maybe...you should do the questioning?"

Natalie grinned at him and shook her head, slightly. "Sure. If I didn't know any better, DiNozzo, I'd say you were afraid of the guy."

"I'm not afraid of the guy," Tony snapped at her as they walked across the street towards the bar. "Just think he's going to be...more...wiliing to talk to your pretty face than mine."

"If you guys need such a feminine touch around here, why don't you have a woman on your team?" Natalie asked as they stopped outside the wooden door of the pub.

Tony winced as he reached for the door and pulled it open. "Um, well, we did have a woman but she...ah...it didn't work out. She transferred to another post."

Natalie could immediately see him closing up to her. What had brought that on, she couldn't be certain. She detected a history between the federal agent and this woman. How much of a history she couldn't be certain but she had been a cop long enough to know the hidden meaning. Tony had a relationship with this woman and it had probably gone South and she left. "There aren't any other female NCIS agents?" she asked as they strolled into the bar.

"Of course there are but you can't just pick one out of a hat-it has to be the right fit."

"So, why don't you do auditions?"

Tony chuckled at her teasing nature, even as Gary, the owner of the bar, glared at him from behind the counter. "Hey Gary," he said, "Mind if we ask you a few more questions?"

Gary snarled. "Why should I help you, DiNozzo? NCIS nearly put me out of business and I had to fire four waitresses for serving to minors. Not to mention the Baltimore PD has made it a point to stop in every Friday night just to make sure everyone is following the rules."

Natalie found her badge and showed it to the bartender. "I'm Detective Callahan from the Boston PD. Were you here the night that Amber Hamel was raped?"

"Yeah. I was working in the back," Gary said, wiping his tumblers dry. "Girl and her friends were pretty hammered. Guys kept buying them rounds of shots. "

"Did you see her leave?" Natalie inquired.

Gary shook his head. "Nope. I went back to do inventory and when I came back out they were gone. Waitress said that Amber's friends had left her and that some guy offered to get her a cab."

Natalie looked above the bar at a camera. "Do you have footage of that night?"

"Sorry, sweetheart. Like I told NCIS-those cameras are just there for show," Gary replied. "NCIS has a sketch of the guy anyways."

"Yeah, it's not a very good one," Tony snapped. "Apparently your waitresses don't like to look at your customers' faces."

"Hey. I pay them to serve drinks. Not to have heart to heart conversations with them."

Tony frowned and opened his mouth to comment back, when Natalie put her hand on his arm and stopped him. "Thanks Gary. I think we have all we need," she said, sweetly leading him back outside.

He blinked rapidly for a second. "We have everything we need?"

She pointed across the street at the connivence store. "I bet they have real cameras. Maybe we can pull the footage and see _who _put Amber in the cab. Why didn't you check there before?"

"We were under the belief that it was Amber's _friends _that put her in the cab," Tony said with a shrug. "Now that I know it wasn't well...naturally I would have come to the same conclusion that we should go across the street to see if the store has any video footage."

"Great idea,"Natalie said, grinning as she led the way across the street. "I'm so glad you thought of it!"

"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm, Ms. Callahan?"

Natalie tossed him an easy smile. "Perhaps."

Tony felt like he should roll his eyes at her or something, but instead he smiled back, following her inside the store and letting her take the lead. She seemed surprised by that. "Well...truthfully it was _your _idea."

"You're not going to take all the credit?" she asked, teasingly as they entered the store.

"No. Gibbs sees through that anyways," he replied, honestly, glancing at the small woman working behind the counter.

She noticed their badges right away and frowned. "My son didn't do anything," she snapped in a thick accent.

Tony and Natalie looked at each other briefly before Tony asked, "Um, who do you we're with?"

"You are not with the Baltimore police?"

"No. Agent DiNozzo, NCIS, and this is Detective Callahan from the Boston PD. We just wanted to ask you some questions about a woman that was raped a month ago."

She took a deep breath and nodded her head. "I am surprised you have not come to talk to me sooner. Night girl was raped I saw her get into cab with a man."

Tony couldn't help the small stirrings of hope. "Did you get a good look at him?"

Natalie pulled the sketch they had out of her pocket and held it up. "Did he look like this?"

"Could be. But he was wearing glasses...hipsters is what you Americans call it I think."

"You sure he had glasses?"

"Uh-huh. Wearing a black tee shirt."

"Do you have an security cameras outside?"

The small woman tossed him a look and then sighed. "Yes. Not sure they would have gotten any footage for you."

Tony offered his most charm grin and asked her to get them the tapes. While she was off doing that for them, he noticed that Natalie was staring at the sketch. "Problem, Detective?"

Natalie shook her head. "Just trying to imagine him with glasses."

"And?"

"And...isn't anyone we've ran into today...if that's what you're hoping."

"I was...but that would be too easy."

The store owner came back then, carrying an old VHS tape, with a white label that had the date that Amber was raped. She handed it to Tony and hesitated letting it go completely. "You promise that you are only looking for information regarding the rape? Not my son?"

Tony narrowed his eyes for a moment. "What kind of trouble is your son getting into?" Natalie cleared her throat and Tony took the hint. "Yes," he said, "promise we are only looking for information regarding our case." He snatched the tape up before she could change her mind and thanked her, turning on his heel and leading the way back outside.

Natalie followed, quietly behind him, still clutching the sketch in her hand. "Hey. When we get back to NCIS do you think I could look at my file again? Or do you guys have it under lock and key?"

"It's not being filed away in Area 51 if that's what you're concerned about," Tony snarked. "Why do you ask?"

"I think...I think I've seen this man before," she replied holding up the sketch that she had now added hipster glasses to with her pen.

"From where?"

"A case in Florida. Photograph of a driver speeding through a toll the night the victim was killed."

"Did you run his plates?"

"It was the victim's car. It was how she was identified."

Tony unlocked the Charger and opened his door, leaning against it for a second. "The investigators weren't able to pull a clear shot of him to run through AFIS?"

Natalie shook her head as she opened her own door. "No. He wore a baseball cap so they couldn't see his entire face."

_Baseball cap? _Tony went over all the evidence collected at the scene. One item that had been found nearby had been a baseball cap bearing the symbol of the San Francisco Giants. "Was it a Giants cap?"

"San Fran or New York?"

"San Fran. It would have been black and orange-"

"I know. I'm from Boston I know my baseball."

Tony grinned. "Of course. So...was it a San Francisco Giants hat?"

Natalie nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"Because," Tony said, getting into the car. "We have his hat and we might be able to pull prints and DNA from it."

"What? You have _his _hat?" Natalie asked, climbing into the car excitedly. "Why didn't you try to get prints before?"

Tony sighed and started the car up, directing it into traffic and back towards NCIS. "Because it was found near the crime scene but not close enough that we thought the perp dropped it. Besides, Amber didn't say he was wearing a baseball hat."

Natalie pressed her lips together. "He must have dropped it when he fled."

"Let's get back to NCIS," Tony said. "Gibbs is gonna want to hear all this."

* * *

Gibbs stepped into the bathroom and turned the sink on, splashing the cold water over his face in the hopes that it would center him.

It had taken a lot of will power not to manhandle Amber's boyfriend like he'd manhandled Natalie Callahan. And perhaps he should have cuffed the bastard right then and there but he felt for the couple. Amber had been the victim of a brutal attack and someone as macho as her boyfriend was had to be feeling all sorts of anger. His team certainly wasn't helping matters—especially a charged up DiNozzo who was looking for any outlet to unleash his aggression.

Normally Gibbs wouldn't worry about it. Tony would figure things out on his own but after what happened in May, this case was only adding to the pressure and frustration that DiNozzo was already feeling. It was only a matter of time before the senior field agent exploded.

"Ah, Jethro," Ducky's voice said, pulling him from his thoughts, "there you are."

"Yeah, can I help you, Duck?" Gibbs asked, reaching for a paper towel to dry his face.

Ducky nodded his head. "I went over Detective Callahan's file. The young lady is a bright profiler, Jethro. She's painted an accurate description of our suspect. This man knows the Navy inside and out, perhaps still serves. He kills women because he was probably humiliated by one, dressing them in uniform to feel powerful, authoritative over them. If he is in the Navy I'd say he's probably a junior officer."

Gibbs tossed the paper towel into the trash. "All these women have the same physical appearance?"

"Yes. They did. He's replicating the woman he felt wronged him. In fact, I went back to look at the first case thirteen years ago—she _was _in the Navy—it's still a cold case in the NCIS database."

"She was the officer that humiliated him."

"Chances are yes. He's very good Jethro, he kills them and disposes of their bodies in rivers so DNA evidence washes away."

Gibbs sighed and turned to face Ducky. "Any way you can get your hands on that autopsy?"

Ducky nodded. "I don't see why not. I have a call into San Diego now where she was found and examined by the local coroner." He turned to go but Gibbs stopped him.

"Hey Duck, what do you think of Callahan?"

"She is smart, resourceful, perhaps a little unsure of herself, but she isn't afraid to take risks."

"Yeah, I got that impression too."

Ducky smiled and nodded. "She fits our needs, Jethro," he said simply before disappearing.

Gibbs sighed again. Yes, he was starting to feel that Natalie would fill that hole on his team nicely because no matter how much Abby wanted him to try and get Ziva back, that ship had sailed. If Ziva had stayed on his team she would have destroyed them.

Straightening up he exited the bathroom and strode back to the bullpen. McGee was at his desk working and Tony was not back yet. "Hey," he said to the junior agent, "did you get that background information I asked for?"

"Yeah," McGee said. "I put her personnel file on your desk. She was formally reprimanded two weeks ago for investigating this case on her own. Guess a witness in the case filed a complaint that she was harassing them."

"Did that lead to anything? By doing this so-called harassing the witness?" Gibbs asked.

"Well, I talked to her partner," McGee said. "According to him he wouldn't call anything that Natalie did harassment. Just that the witness might have something illegal to hide—turns out they arrested the guy a couple of days later for dealing crack."

Gibbs frowned and went to grab the file off of his desk. "Did her partner seem surprised that she was here?"

McGee shook his head. "Ah, no, boss. She, um…I guess she asked for leave time. He figured she had come down here to speak to us."

He looked at the empty desk, thinking back to what Ducky had said in the restroom just moments before. _She fits our needs. _ Now it was just convincing her that she was the right fit and to make the move to Washington. He was asking her to uproot her entire life and judging from the glance he took of her file, she had never ventured too far out of her home city.

"Boss?" McGee questioned, making the team leader realize he had zoned out for a moment. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said, softly. He grabbed his gun and badge and strapped them on. "Let me know when DiNozzo gets back. I'm going for coffee."

"Sure thing, boss," McGee said as the lead agent disappeared into the elevator.

Gibbs pressed the button for his floor and sighed, again, then chuckled. _DiNozzo didn't need to look for a new agent after all-she came to us. _Now it was just a matter of convincing _her _that it was right.

* * *

Abby Sciuto's music was not loud and blasting like normal. Which, made Tony slightly anxious when he stepped off the elevator near the lab. It meant that she probably was not in a good mood.

"Hey Abs," Tony greeted, casually as he and Natalie stepped inside the lab. "Got something for you."

She turned, her pigtails following suit and fixed her glare on the detective. "Who's _this?__" _she asked, harshly. "Did Gibbs already hire a replacement for Ziva? He isn't even given her a chance to think about coming back, Tony."

He frowned slightly. "This is Natalie Callahan, detective from Boston. She's helping us with our case. And it's been...a month Abs. The team can't be down an agent much longer or Tim and I are going to explode. Ziva made it pretty clear she didn't want to come back to NCIS."

"What did you bring me?" she asked, ignoring him.

"Can you pull DNA off of that ball cap we found?" Tony wondered.

Abby shrugged. "Sure, they're might be traces of skin or hair, even sweat on the cap. Why? I thought that cap was just found in the radius of the search area?"

Natalie glanced, briefly, at Tony. "We think our suspect was wearing it and dropped it when he fled the scene."

"Well, DNA doesn't help much unless we have a suspect," Abby pointed out to her. "But I'll see what I can do."

"Great!" Natalie said, enthusiastically. "Do you think you can pull up footage from this tape of Amber getting into a cab?"

Abby looked at Tony, incredulously. Tony just smiled. "It would be helpful," he said with a slight shrug, and he wasn't surprised when she turned on her heel and shooed them from her lab.

Natalie on the other hand was a bit confused and stated, before leaving, "It was nice to meet you Ms. Sciuto."

Tony chuckled as they stepped onto the elevator. "So," he said, pressing the button for the main floor, "you survived your first meeting with Abby and you met the grumpy version. That's quite the feat, Ms. Callahan."

"Why? Is she...normally not so grumpy?"

"Happiest Goth you'll meet."

"Just not today because she thinks I took this Ziva's place?"

Tony bit the inside of his cheek as the doors opened. "Yeah. We've been through a rough patch and Abby...doesn't like change."

Natalie smiled. "Well, no one really does. Besides," she said as she got off the elevator, "it's not like I'm working for you guys."


	5. Personal Boundaries

**Warnings: **Mentions of drugs and sexual assault.

**A/N: **Thank you everyone for your encouragement. I have conversed with a few of you about what happened. It is never easy when you have a rough day and come home to be told that what you're writing is disgusting. I understand that not everyone's reviews are going to be heaping praise, and I'm okay with people leaving reviews that leave thoughtful remarks, but to first admit you are a fan of Ziva and then bash me as a writer, that's just not cool and I'm pretty much done with these types of people and their drama all over the internet. Personal vow to myself that I am not going to search the tags and such on social media.

**Milkywaysupernova, **_I tried to PM you but, it wouldn't work. Thank you for your thoughts. I did not think I was bashing any character in any way. I have seen stories that are clearly in favor of one character making the others look horrendous. I thought in my first two chapters I had written the characters showing their flaws. If people perceive that as character bashing they are living in fantasy land because we all have flaws. Even their beloved Ziva. And you're right it is cyber bullying, and it's not just Ziva fans. There are fans of other characters out there that tend to leave nasty reviews as well. But this one was the first one that actually said my writing was disgusting because I "chose" to bash Ziva. And I'm going to keep deleting those anon reviews there's no place for cyber bullies. If they really want to have a constructive conversation with me on my perceptions or writings then they can sign in and leave a name. _

* * *

Natalie was on her fourth cup of coffee and Tony was getting jittery just watching her drink it. She had spread out her file on the empty desk making herself at home there and he was startled with how comfortable he was that there was someone at that desk. All three of them had been protective of that desk after Kate died.

_Well, its not like Ziva died, now is it? _Tony told himself. He watched as the Boston detective went over every last detail of the case, trying to make a connection. She had been at it for the last hour or so and Tony decided that he didn't really want to sit there and watch her anymore. He had gone over all the details of their case himself and his brain was fried, but perhaps they could help each other.

Standing up he slipped out of his suit coat and moved towards Natalie, gently nudging her so he could get access to the file. "Find anything yet?"

"Besides their physical appearance, I can't figure out _how _he chooses his victims," Natalie said, frustrated. She sucked down the rest of her coffee and shook the empty cup. "Do you think we could get a refill?"

"Yeah. I think you've had enough of that stuff for now," Tony said, taking the cardboard cup out of her hand and throwing it in the trash. He leaned over her and moved some files out of the way to get a look at some of the crime scene photos. "Here, maybe a pair of fresh eyes will help."

Natalie watched, cautiously as his arms came around her and he began to go through her work. "You guys don't have a lot of personal boundaries here do you?"

Tony chuckled while he looked at the photographs. "You work with us you'll realize that personal boundaries go out the window the moment you sign on the dotted line."

"I don't think my partner has even _hugged _me," Natalie said.

"Really? Not even when you've had a bad day?"

"Listen, I know I'm a girl but I don't need to be coddled."

He smiled. "Don't worry. Gibbs doesn't coddle."

She frowned slightly. "Yeah I got that impression when he slapped you on the back of the head earlier today."

"_That _doesn't happen very often," Tony snapped.

"Sure," Natalie said teasingly.

"Here's your connection," Tony said, ignoring her. "All victims liked to drink martinis."

Natalie scrunched her nose up and looked at an affidavit from a witness. _Victim was seen drinking martinis before leaving bar with a tall man with a ball cap on. _ "So that's it? They look alike and like martinis?"

Tony laughed. "Well…sometimes that's all you need. Ducky was going to get that original file from San Diego. Maybe we'll find out if our first victim enjoyed a good drink every now and then."

"Amber said she was doing shots."

"Probably getting less picky. Listen, serial killers can change things up to throw us off the beaten path."

"I just feel like we're so…close."

Tony quirked an eyebrow and said, teasingly, "We'll we're _very _close, Detective."

McGee chose that moment to come back with a fresh batch of coffees. "You know this is why we have to do those sexual harassment trainings, right Tony?" He put the coffees down onto the desk and eyed his partner, cautiously.

"Stop being so serious, McPrude," Tony snarked, grabbing his coffee and making his way back to his own desk.

"We don't want to chase away any help we're getting right now," McGee argued.

Natalie smiled and grabbed her coffee, taking a large gulp. "It takes more than standing too close to chase me away, Agent McGee. I'm not going to leave just because Agent DiNozzo doesn't have any personal boundaries."

Gibbs chose that moment to return to the squad room. "Good to know, Detective. What you've all got for me?"

"Martinis," Tony answered. He looked between McGee and Natalie before he continued, but not after Gibbs threw him a glare. "Well, not an actual martini for you, boss, just that it appears our victims all liked to hit the hard stuff after a long day."

"We're still waiting on a hit from the DNA or prints," McGee reported.

"Ms. Callahan?" Gibbs inquired. "Possible that our guy could strike again in this area?"

Natalie shrugged. "Sure. He didn't finish the last time. Going back to kill Amber would be too risky. And I'm sure that he's seen the news to know that NCIS doesn't have any leads in this case."

Gibbs walked over and grabbed at her ponytail and let her hair loose. He fluffed it slightly and stepped back, grinning. "Tony."

"Yeah boss?"

"What are you doing tonight?"

"Uh…I'm guessing working?"

"You and Ms. Callahan have a date."

"Boss?" Tony and McGee asked at the same time.

Gibbs continued grinning. "We're going to go bring the guy to us."

Tony suddenly saw where the team leader was going with this and he wasn't sure he liked it. Not that he didn't think Natalie would be good undercover, but he wasn't sure he could trust her to have his back. He barely knew her. "We don't even know what bar he'll be at," the SFA pointed out.

"Several ships on liberty tonight. Bars in downtown Baltimore will be crawling with potential targets. He'll be there," Gibbs said, firmly. "And Ms. Callahan is close enough in physical appearance to those victims that we might be able to use her."

"I hate martinis," Natalie said, scrunching her nose up.

Tony chuckled. "Well, I can't pass McGee off as a my date."

Natalie tossed him a coy look. "Why not? You two look great together."

* * *

It was almost hard to believe that underneath that leather jacket and boot-cut jeans, Natalie had a cute little body. Of course, Tony was very much aware how attractive she was from the moment she stepped off the elevator, it just seemed that _she _wasn't aware of it.

Abby adjusted the detective's earwig and went to put it in her ear but Natalie was squirming, trying to get comfortable in the strapless black dress she had on. "I really need you to sit still for one second," Abby said, slightly annoyed.

"Sorry," Natalie mumbled. "It's just…I'm not used to you know…showing this much…cleavage."

"Why not?" Abby asked, slipping the earwig into Natalie's ear. "You look hot in that dress."

Tony had to hide a chuckle at the slight, horrified look that passed Natalie's face. Oh she was getting the full out Abby experience today that was for sure. "See, told you I couldn't pass that dress off on McGee."

Natalie rolled her eyes at him while Gibbs strode into the room, fresh cup of coffee in his hand. "Ready to go?" the team leader asked.

"Almost finished," Abby said, gesturing towards the equipment. "Just have to put this clip in Detective Callahan's hair. It has a camera in it that will be directly wired to the truck so you and McGee can watch."

"Have a hit for me so I know _who _to watch for?"

Abby twirled around on her combat boots and reached for a printout. "Meet Lieutenant Martin Westfled. I managed to get a seventy percent facial match on the video that Tony and Detective Callahan brought back. I know it's not enough to hold up in court but if we catch the guy tonight I have Amber's rape kit to run DNA."

Gibbs snatched the picture from her and tipped his head at Tony and Natalie. "Let's go," he said, before placing a soft kiss on Abby's cheek. "Nice work Abs."

Tony could see that Natalie was surprised by Gibbs' actions and reached out to grab a hold of her arm and pulled her along to follow behind the team leader. He heard her mumble something else about personal boundaries under her breath and he laughed, for real, for the first time in weeks. It made Gibbs turn and look at him funny. Tony quickly wiped the smirk on his face and whispered, "Sorry, boss."

Natalie was still squirming in the dress. Gibbs shot her a look and she immediately stopped. "Sorry…I'm not used to having a gun strapped to my leg this…high."

"Really?" Tony quipped right before Gibbs' hand made contact with the back of his head. The SFA looked incredulously at the SSA, who had a slight smirk on his face. "It's nearly ten o'clock. I've been working all day. Can't I have a _little _fun?"

"Oh yeah," Gibbs said, grinning, "When you get to the bar."

"Huh?"

"Well, this is supposed to be a _date,_" Gibbs drawled, a little too happy before getting off the elevator.

Tony briefly wondered if perhaps the SSA was toying with him…or setting up Natalie on an impromptu job interview. Either way, Tony straightened his blazer and followed suit, because the night was still young and they had a killer to catch.

* * *

"_Remember, DiNozzo, this is supposed to look like a date," _Gibbs snapped in his earwig, "_Don't start fearing touching a woman on me _now."

Tony shifted his position at the bar to get closer to Natalie and get a better visual on the patrons. So far they had been at this for about an hour and nothing had caught either of their interest yet. He reached over and brushed his fingers along the bare skin of Natalie's shoulders. "Boss," he whispered, as he let his hand drift lower, "I don't think our guy is here."

Gibbs was silent for a second. "_He's here. Keep looking." _

The SFA sighed, now, as his hand rested on Natalie's waist. She had been incredibly uncomfortable the first fifteen minutes, but she had eased in eventually and didn't seem to flinch at his touch anymore. He let his eyes leave the busy nightclub for a moment and glanced down at her. She had a glass in front of her, sipping a fake martini. From the way she was sitting and the way he was standing he had a full view of her. Because he couldn't help himself he let his eyes wander down, and she noticed. She twisted slightly on her stool and stood up, denying him access to the view. It was such a stark contrast to Ziva, who would have played with him, hung her body out there like a carrot just to see him squirm.

Natalie grabbed her drink and downed the rest of the olive infused water before Tony could get a word out. But she did toss him a coy little smile.

"Need a refill, sweetheart?"

"Please."

Tony chuckled and then he gently let his arm hook around her waist while he flagged the bartender down. It wasn't long before two more disguised drinks were put in front of them. Another hour passed and Tony was certain that their guy wasn't at this bar, which meant they had wasted time. There was no way to peg where he was going to strike next. McGee had suggested this bar because they had the best martinis in the city and it made sense that their suspect would find his next victim here.

Apparently Gibbs was starting to feel the same way after two hours. "_Pack up, DiNozzo. Let's head to the next bar." _

Tony gently placed his hand underneath Natalie's elbow and was about to direct her towards the entrance when someone bumped into the two of them and he gripped the bar to keep his balance. "Hey!" he snapped at the drunk that had crashed into them and now spilled his drink all over Tony's suit.

"Oh…oh sorry," the drunk man stuttered. He grabbed a cocktail napkin the bar and begin to wipe at the beer stain on Tony's suit. "Here…let me…let me help."

"Forget it!" Tony snapped at him. He looked at Natalie. "I'm going to go to the restroom."

As he walked he could hear the drunk continuing a conversation with Natalie over his radio. "_Your boyfriend is an ass." _

Natalie chuckled. "_He just doesn't like it when someone ruins his good suit. He spends half his paychecks on clothes. More than I do."_

_"Seems like a waste of money."_

_"But he looks pretty."_

Tony rolled his eyes and stepped up to the sink. He wet a paper towel and began to wipe at the beer all over his chest. This was his favorite blazer too and he was dreading the dry cleaning bill. Natalie was still talking to the drunk guy but he had tuned out what they were saying exactly.

But he was started a little when his feed started to sound wonky. Natalie wasn't making much sense, slurring a little like she had too much to drink and the drunk guy…he almost sounded sober. _Son of a bitch! _

He sprung into action, crashing the door to the men's room open and nearly knocking over a young twenty-something as he did so. It wasn't far to get to where Natalie was at the bar, in fact Tony could see her and the "drunk" the moment he emerged from the hall where the rest room. "Boss!" he gasped into his radio. "Boss! We have a situation!"

_"Copy that Tony, we're on our way." _

"HEY!" Tony shouted, loudly to draw attention to himself as he got closer to Natalie. "What do you think you're doing!"

The guy's hand was around Natalie's arm and she was completely subdued, no thanks to the drug that had probably been slipped into her drink by the very man that had collided with Tony. He'd done it to get Tony out of the way, to take advantage of her., and slip the drug into her drink without either of them noticing. And boy had he pulled the wool over _both _their eyes.

Tony could see that her glass of water was practically gone, meaning she had ingested almost the entirety of the drug. It was time to blow his cover. If their suspect was here, he'd be gone in a heart beat. But Tony knew he had to do it. He reached into his pocket and found his badge. Holding it up, he shouted at the guy again, "NCIS! Let her go!"

Gibbs burst into the scene at that moment, slamming the guy out of the way and adding to Tony's shouts. "Down on the ground! Federal agents!"

Natalie blinked confused as Tony finally got to her and moved her to safety. "What…what's going on?"

"Tim," the SFA snapped, reaching for what was left of Natalie's drink. "Bag this."

_"_Got it," McGee said taking the glass while Gibbs cuffed the guy.

"What the hell, man!" their newly arrested perp snapped. "I was just trying to have fun!"

Gibbs yanked the jerk to his feet and searched him, finding a small bottle of GHB in his pant's pocket. "Yeah. Drugging a cop is fun. You've interfered with a federal investigation. Hope you have a good lawyer."

Natalie was less confused now. Her eyes went wide for a moment as she swayed slightly, using Tony's body to catch herself. He gripped her arm, tightly and steadily lead her through the startled on-lookers and out of the nightclub. "I don't understand…I didn't drink _anything. _Why do I feel like I did?"

Tony opened the passenger door on his car and helped her inside. "You were given GHB, Natalie."

"What? That drunk that split his beer all over you?"

"Yeah. Gibbs found the drugs in his pocket when he searched him."

Natalie collapsed against the seat. The drugs had taken a fast affect on her. Probably due to the fact that she downed the rest of her drugged water before they were set to leave. Tony wondered how much the bastard had given her. The best they could do at this moment was to let her sleep it off.

Tony cursed himself as he drove back to NCIS. He should have seen that one coming. He should haven't left her alone at the bar. And if he hadn't figured it out, thirty seconds more in that bathroom and who knows what would have happened. Would the scumbag have taken her out back and raped her in the alley?

"Can I…can we stop to get…something to eat?" Natalie asked, half-awake, half asleep.

"You want food?" Tony questioned.

"Uh-huh. I'm thinking a cheeseburger."

"Sure we can stop."

Natalie looked at him, confused. "Stop for what?"

Tony gripped the steering wheel, knowing that this was the drug messing with her system. "You said you wanted to stop for a cheeseburger."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Because you're hungry?"

"No! I'm not!"

"Ok…we'll just got back to NCIS."

Natalie shifted in her seat, slightly. "Tony."

Tony sighed. "Yeah?"

"I don't…something…isn't…right," she said, nearly hysterics.

"Just stay calm," he told her. "You're okay. You're with me." _Don't worry, I've got your six, Callahan._

Natalie closed her eyes tightly to stop the car from spinning madly and then, felt her body become completely still, relaxed almost paralyzed before she finally slipped into a dark, unconscious state.


	6. New Discovery

**Warnings: **Mentions of drugs and sexual assault. Spoilers for anything up to Season 7

**A/N: **Time for more! I hope this isn't moving along too slowly for anyone. I know that I've spent quite a bit of time on the case and introducing the new character. I think things are going to pick up in the next few chapters anyways.

If you remember last time, Gibbs had put Tony and Natalie undercover at a bar and she was drugged by some jerk. **Thank you everyone for the support, its been nice to read and see :). **

* * *

"Where am I?" Natalie murmured, finally coming around after eight hours.

"Georgetown University Hospital," Tony's voice answered. "Doctor's wanted to keep you overnight for observation. You gave us a little bit of a scare there, Callahan. I mean, I know GHB can knock you out, but man did your blood pressure sky-rocket and then drop dramatically."

Natalie slowly opened her eyes to see him sitting there, next to her. He had a shadow of growth on his face, his blazer was draped over the back of his chair and his beer-stained shirt from the night before was opened at the top. "Did you stay the whole night?"

Tony looked at her, softly. "Some jackass tried to assault you last night—did you think Gibbs was going to let you stay here by yourself?"

"I thought you guys arrested him?" Natalie asked, feeling the blinding pain behind her eyes exploding thanks to a nasty headache. "At least…I think I remember you arresting the guy. I…everything is a little fuzzy."

"We arrested him. But GHB takes hours to completely wear off. You were out cold, too," Tony told her. "Not in our nature to leave someone who is incapacitated alone."

Natalie looked at the pitcher of water by her bed. Tony saw where her eyes travelled and poured her a glass. He wove a hand behind her head, helped bring it to her lips and let her take a few, large gulps, before pulling the glass away. "Thanks."

Tony smiled at her as he put the glass down on the table. "Nurse should be bringing in your breakfast. Hope you like oatmeal. I tried to tell them that you'd want bacon and eggs and the whole nine yards but the ah, nurse…she didn't think that was a good idea. They want you to take it easy on your stomach."

"How long do I have to stay here?"

"Took your blood just before you woke up to test it. If the GHB is out of your system you should be able to go home."

"Gibbs mad at me?"

He shook his head. "No. Why would he be mad?"

She sighed. "Because I blew the entire operation."

"No—the bastard that drugged you blew the operation."

"What if Westfled was there? We missed our opportunity to get him."

"Doesn't mean he knows we're looking for him. Stop beating yourself up, okay? If anything it was _my _fault the entire operation was blown. I should have seen what he was doing and I shouldn't have left you alone," Tony argued. "I was the one that broke our cover—not you."

Natalie blinked, rapidly. "You broke cover?"

Tony nodded. "Had to. If I didn't he was going to whisk you right out of that club and who knows to where given what he was planning on doing."

She winced then at the sharp pain in her head. It reminded her of the headaches she used to wake up with when she was in college, but this one was not of her own making and it pissed her off—royally.

He reached out and patted her knee. "We'll make sure the nurse gives you something for that headache, alright?"

"Yeah…that…that sounds good. Tony?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

Tony looked at her, puzzled. "Should I be acting…mean?"

Natalie shrugged. "I guess what I mean is we barely know each other and I know that your team is going through a huge transition right now after a loosing a member. Just figured you'd be a bit more grumpy after your partner left."

"My partner and I didn't part on the best terms," he whispered.

"Ah…you're awake and I bet hungry," the nurse said interrupting them. "Gave those federal agents quite the fright, young lady."

"So I've heard," Natalie said, softly.

The nurse swiveled her tray around and placed her breakfast down onto it. "Here, baby," she said, smiling, "eat this. You'll feel better in no time."

Natalie nodded. "Did my blood test come back yet?"

"You want to leave us so soon? We were just getting to know you."

"I have a job to do and…I…no offense…I don't like hospitals."

"Not many people do baby," the middle aged woman commented before leaving.

Tony studied her for a moment. "So, why don't you like hospitals?"

Natalie picked at her breakfast. "My younger brother had cancer, we spent a lot of time in the hospital with him. You know for treatments and illnesses. He used to get everything. I had to wear robes and masks around him when I wanted to see him. I grew up thinking that doctors and hospitals were supposed to make us better but well…watching him struggle with cancer and then pass from it…tainted my view."

"How old were you when he died?"

"Nineteen."

"I'm sorry, Natalie. That has to be rough."

Natalie shrugged again, trying to mask the hurt. "My mom keeps telling me to this day that he's in a better place and not in anymore pain. For a while that made me feel better, but…he was only fifteen when he died. He should still be here, you know?"

Tony didn't know what it was like to los a sibling because he didn't have one, but he did know what it was like to lose people close to him at a young age. His mother—Kate—Paula. All those women should still be alive today. They had all died much too young. "Well, like the nurse said, there aren't a lot of people who do like hospitals."

"Why don't you like them?" she asked, honestly while she ate.

"Oh…never said I didn't," he deflected. She tossed him a look. He sighed. "Four years ago I almost died in one. Just like you... I don't have fond memories." _And just like you I want to get the hell out of them once I'm in. _

Natalie finished her oatmeal and then took the painkillers that the nurse had left for her with the rest of her water. Now that she had eaten, she found that the nurse was right, she was feeling a bit better. Hopefully her blood tests came back negative for the drugs and she could be on her way. Tony sitting here baby-sitting her was no help to Gibbs and they really needed to find Westfled before he killed someone else.

Tony's cell phone rang and broke the silence. He excused himself and went out into the hall just as the doctor was coming in.

"Got good news for you, Detective," he said with a smile. "Your blood tests came back negative. You're free to go. I'll have the nurse draft up the paper work at the front desk. I'm assuming that Agent DiNozzo will be driving you back to your hotel?"

"I didn't ask," Natalie confessed, her eyes watching Tony through the glass door. "But I'm sure he would."

The doctor wrote something down on her chart and pointed towards a plastic bag. "Another agent brought some clothes for you to change into. You're more than welcome to use the shower here before you go."

Natalie shot a look at the bag and didn't even here him leave. She shouldn't be surprised that either Gibbs, or perhaps even McGee, had gone to her hotel room to get her clothes. _Personal boundaries my ass, _she thought as she slipped out of the bed and went to get the bag.

Tony was still outside talking on his cell phone and didn't even notice that she had disappeared into the bathroom. The hospital shower wasn't as nice and spacious as the one in her hotel, but it felt good to wash her hair and get all the grim off. By the time she was down, Tony was off the phone waiting for her. "You up for going into NCIS today?"

"Sure, why?"

"Another body was found. We need to nail this bastard and fast."

"Where was the body found?"

"Pond in Rock Creek Park. Gibbs, McGee and Ducky are on their way."

Natalie clipped her badge to her jeans, and then slipped on her holster. "What are we waiting for? Let's go."

Tony had to grin at her eagerness, determination, and as they left the room, he whispered, "Let's not tell the nurse you're going to work, okay?"

"Okay," Natalie said with a laugh, "I promise I won't say a word."

* * *

Gibbs pulled his sedan up at the crime scene. Quickly he got out of the car and headed towards the yellow tape. He could see that Ducky and Palmer were already working on the body and McGee was taking sketches. Tony was off interviewing the two teens that had discovered the body and Natalie was hovering around the medical examiner.

He lifted the tape and stepped under, taking sure strides towards his diligently working team. "Doctor give you the all clear to work?" he directed the question towards Natalie.

"My blood test came back negative. GHB is out of my system if that's what you're wondering," Natalie answered. "Besides this is more important."

"Jethro," Ducky said, looking up at the team leader, "As much as I would love to debate whether or not Ms. Callahan should have stayed at her hotel to rest today, I'm afraid that we do have another victim of our serial killer on our hands."

Gibbs scowled. "Did you get that report from San Diego yet?"

Ducky nodded. "It was delivered this morning. I haven't had time to look over it or Lieutenant Westfled's file. Perhaps…Ms. Callahan can do that once we get back to NCIS?"

"Profile Lieutenant Westfled?" Natalie inquired. "You don't have someone to do that?"

_We did—once, _Gibbs thought sadly, remembering Kate. "Ducky could do it. But he's going to be in the middle of an autopsy. Could use the help, Callahan."

Natalie smiled, broadly. "It shouldn't take me too long to come up with a profile, Gibbs. I mean…men like this…they're a certain type and all…but the file would help me better understand why he does all this…you know—" she stopped when she saw the lead agent shoot her a glare. "Sorry. Didn't mean to ramble."

Gibbs looked over his shoulder at Tony. "Go ramble to Tony. He likes to do the same thing."

"Boss," McGee said, stepping up to him. "Found tire tracks not too far from here. Maybe that's how Westfled transported the body to the park."

"Take a cast for Abby."

"Already done."

Gibbs nodded, curtly and glanced down at the body of the young woman that had been found. She looked just like all the other victims, just like Amber Hamel. His skin crawled thinking about this scumbag still on the loose. "Time of death, Duck?"

Ducky pulled the liver probe from their victim. "I'd estimate about three days ago. Perhaps we should check with the local police and find out if any missing persons reports have been filed."

"I'll stick McGee and DiNozzo on that," Gibbs said. "Callahan's gonna be working with you on that profile, Duck. Hope you don't mind working with a Boston girl—after all they were the ones that stole America from the Brits."

"Jethro, the American Revolution was hundreds of years ago," Ducky replied while the team leader walked away, "And I'm from Scotland! Not England!"

Gibbs just smiled and kept walking.

* * *

"Hey, Ducky," Natalie said about an hour after they returned to NCIS. "What did you say the name of the victim from San Diego was?"

"Ah… Lieutenant Commander Maggie Cole," Ducky replied while he worked on the latest autopsy of _Jane Doe. _"Why do you ask my dear?"

Natalie shuffled some papers around on Ducky's desk to find the one she was looking for. "Because…Maggie Cole was Martin Westfled's _mother._" She looked up at the medical examiner in deep thought. "His mother was assaulted by her boyfriend during her first tour of duty at the age of 22 but NCIS or NIS at the time couldn't make the charges stick. She got pregnant as a result of the rape."

Ducky stopped what he was doing. "It's not unusual for a serial killer's first victim to be someone close to them."

"There's nothing to suggest _why _he did it though," Natalie replied. "I mean…my whole theory was that he was embarrassed by a woman and needed to make them feel inferior to him, so he rapes and kills them. But…why start with his mother?"

"Perhaps his mother is the root of the entire problem," Ducky suggested as he weighed the victim's heart.

Natalie suddenly got another idea and flipped her laptop open. She did a quick search for any cases surrounding Maggie Cole and her son. "Lieutenant Cole was put under investigation _twice _for abusing her son. Each time CFS closed the case and didn't remove Martin from the home. Perhaps…her abuse of him triggered those feelings of inferiority. Wonder if CFS will let me look at their files?"

Ducky chuckled. "Good luck with that my dear. Those records are juvenile. They are probably sealed."

"We have an active murder investigation. We might be able to get them unsealed."

"Hey," Tony said as the doors to autopsy swished open, "we got name for our Jane Doe from Metro. Parents filed a report three nights ago for their daughter, Anna Fuller."

Ducky sighed. "Are we keeping the case or handing it over to Metro?"

Tony smiled, gently. He had changed since the crime scene and shaved and was looking a bit more refreshed. "Well, when I informed them that we were investigating a Navy lieutenant for her murder, the detective was more than happy to hand the case over. Guess he has a lot on his plate right now. You two come up with anything putting those brains together?"

Natalie jumped off the chair. "Actually we did. Westfled's first victim was his mother."

"You're joking," Tony said. "His mother?"

"Not joking. It appears his mother abused him as a child. There are at least two sealed cases with CFS," Natalie said. "I was just going to go over there and see if I could get them unsealed."

Tony looked at her, incredulously. "Without a warrant?"

Natalie frowned. "It's a murder investigation."

"Come on, Lacey. Let's go get that warrant just in case."

"If I'm Lacey, does that make you Cagney?"

Tony tossed a glare at a chuckling Ducky before leaving autopsy, Natalie on his heels. "I should make you stay here. You know, you did spend the night at the hospital."

Natalie shrugged. "I feel fine. Besides, I'm helping Gibbs out—not working for you—so you can't order me around."

"I'm the senior field agent and so, yes, I can."

"Are you always this demanding?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah…especially when the safety of my team is concerned," Tony replied, firmly. "And as long as you're working on this case with us, you're a member of the team, and those rules apply to you too."

* * *

Gibbs hated to be called away from a case, but Vance was insisting. The SSA strode casually into the Director's office, and stated, "This better be quick, Leon, my team is close to catching a serial killer."

Vance moved past the agent and slammed the door shut. "I just got off the phone with some contacts in the Middle East. Seems like Ms. David has rejoined Mossad."

"No surprise there, Leon," Gibbs said with a shrug. "Her father tell you that?"

"Haven't spoken to Eli since we were in Tel Aviv," Vance confessed. "And even if I did, I'm not sure he'd tell me a damn thing. I only called to make sure my intel was right because Ziva's silence has me a bit worried."

Gibbs gave him a puzzled look. "You haven't heard from her?"

Vance shook his head. "Not a peep. Do you know if anyone on your team has heard from her?"

"I doubt she'd call, DiNozzo. But no one has mentioned hearing from her."

"It's odd, Gibbs."

"I agree."

Vance sighed and fixed his suit coat. "It's odd and I have a bad feeling about it."

Gibbs titled his head before leaving the office, "Me too, Leon. Me too."


	7. Slip Up

**Warnings: **Mentions of child abuse. Spoilers for anything up to Season 7

**A/N: **Long weekend is over and I got a lot of writing done :). Sadly, the next few weeks are going to fly by and I do not know how much writing I am going to get in. So, here is the next update. I know that in an earlier author's note I talked about the team going to Somalia, but...I had another idea instead. I don't want to spoil anything so...just keep reading haha. (Shameless self-promotion)

**Guest-** It's funny that you asked for more McGee, because I was thinking the other day while writing that I had not used him a lot in a while. Which is a shame, because like you, I am a fan of the team and love team centric stories. SO...with that being said, I think there will be more McGee in the future. There seems to be a plague of author's getting unfair criticism on this site recently. I've noticed I am not the only one and I don't know what is going on. Just wanted to let you know that it's guest reviews like yours that I keep the option available, which means I have to deal with the haters. But shutting the option off would be rude to people like you that have nice things or constructive critique for me.

**Thank you everyone for the support, its been nice to read and see :).**

* * *

"Boss," McGee said, excitement in his tone, "I think I've got something."

"Talk to me," Gibbs said, jumping up from his chair and striding over to the plasma screen.

McGee grabbed the remote and hit the clicker. "I pulled Lieutenant Westfled's phone records and credit cards. There really was nothing out of the ordinary but guess what bar he was at the night Amber was raped?"

Gibbs read the name and felt his skin crawl seeing the charges for the rounds of shots. "Was Abby able to pull any DNA from the baseball cap?"

"There was some skin and hair fibers. We should have those results back by the end of the day," McGee replied. "Tony and Natalie were going to MTAC to video conference with CFS in San Diego. I guess that's where the two reports that Natalie uncovered were filed. But, he moved around a lot as a child with his mother. So…there could be more reports out there."

"Speak to his commanding officer yet?" Gibbs asked.

McGee shook his head. "I've got a call in for him to get back to me but I haven't heard anything else yet. Westfled just transferred here in April, just a few weeks before he killed Anna Fuller and raped Amber."

Gibbs took a deep breath. Ducky had confirmed that Anna had died just like all the other victims, strangled until she could breath no more. They were looking at the same killer, they just didn't have anything to arrest him yet. Things would change if the DNA results on the hat came back to match the DNA results on Amber's rape kit. Gibbs had sent Tony and McGee earlier in the day to get a positive identification from their victim that Westfled was the one, and once that DNA matched, Gibbs could get a warrant. Now, it was just the waiting game. "When DiNozzo and Callahan get back, I want all three of you to go pay the CO a visit over at the Pentagon."

"Field trip, boss," Tony said, sauntering back into the bullpen with Natalie, "I love those."

"CFS give you anything?" Gibbs wondered.

"Whole lot of material to use if we ever get the guy in interrogation," Tony quipped. "His mother supposedly beat him, broke bones, there were concerns of sexual abuse but...like we said earlier, none of the charges ever stuck and Martin would be removed from the home only to be brought back. No wonder he turned into some sick, twisted kid."

"Unfortunately at this point we might only be able to nail him with the rape," Natalie replied, frustrated. "He's left no evidence where the murders are concerned. But...he's our guy. He fits the profile to a _T._"

Gibbs titled his head to one side for a moment. "McGee."

McGee perked up. "Ah, yeah boss?"

"Pull up Maggie Cole's photo."

"Ah, sure."

Gibbs turned towards the plasma and watched as the photograph appeared. "We get him in interrogation, Callahan, you're conducting it. A woman asking him questions is one thing, but a woman that resembles _his _mother, well, that's really going to send him over the edge."

Natalie was a bit confused. "Over the edge of what? Because…I'm not sure eliciting a violent outburst from him is going to hold up in court."

Tony pursed his lips. "No, but it might get him to confess. If we get him to wave his rights."

"Some one like Westfled is going to be cocky," Natalie said. "He might just be arrogant enough to wave his Miranda rights."

"Great, but we have one problem," Tony said. "We haven't arrested the guy yet."

McGee sighed and was about to say something when the elevator signaled its arrival and Abby bounded off, excited. "Gibbs!" she shouted, waving a piece of paper in the air. "I got the DNA results back! The DNA on the hat matches the DNA collected in Amber's rape kit."

Tony's eyes grew dark. "Boss, Amber positively identified Westfled as her attacker. This should be enough to get the arrest warrant for her rape at least."

"You work on that," Gibbs said, "McGee, take Callahan and go over to the Pentagon and talk to the CO." He strode out of the bullpen and towards the stairs, "I'll bring Vance up to speed. Let's move! We've got another dirt bag to collar!"

* * *

It did not take Natalie long to learn that Tim McGee was very different from his partner. Even down to the way they carried themselves. While Tony walked with sure, confident strides everywhere he went, Tim seemed to be more hesitant when he was out in the field than when he was in the office. And he didn't use a harsh, demanding tone when he requested to see Westfled's commanding officer like Tony probably would have.

Both men intrigued her, and then there was Gibbs, all wrapped up in mystery. She felt like he was looking into her very soul when he looked at her and she didn't very much like the feeling. He had a way of making people feel vulnerable around him. Which, maybe that was why his team had such a high closure rate—he definitely demanded the best from his team and they definitely delivered. She had made sure to check her facts before coming to Washington in the first place, but none of her background checks had prepared her for the complexity that was known as _Team Gibbs _around the Navy Yard.

"Captain," the Petty Officer said, knocking on the door, and putting a halt to her thoughts for the time being, "NCIS is here to see you." There was no answer behind the glass and the young man tapped on the door again. "Sir?" he questioned. When there was no answer this time he tried the knob but it was locked. He was surprised. "Captain, why is your door locked?"

Tim nervously looked at Natalie. "Did he go out?"

"Not while I've been standing here," the Petty Officer said, picking up the phone. "I can call his cellphone and find him for you."

"Please," Tim said, with nod.

After the Petty Officer had finished dialing the number, immediately a ring tone could be heard coming from the office. The young man was startled. "Odd. He takes that thing everywhere."

Natalie studied the door for a moment. "Do you have a key?"

"Ah no ma'am. I'd have to call maintenance."

"No worries," Natalie said, looking at the lock closer this time, "I think I got this." She pulled a credit card from her wallet and slid it between the lock and door and yanked upwards, quickly. The lock popped out and the door swung open. "You probably should look into better locks," she told the young man as she guided the door open, pulling her weapon.

McGee was a little shaken by her just breaking in like that. It was uncanny how much she channeled Gibbs and Tony by that simple action alone. "Um…we should probably wait for maintenance, or for the Captain to get back…I don't think he'd appreciate it that we're breaking and entering his office like this."

Natalie ignored him as she stepped deeper into the office. "I don't think the Captain is going to mind too much," she said, holstering her weapon.

"Why do you say that?" McGee replied, stepping into the office and going to join her. His eyes fell on the body at the foot of the desk.

"Because," Natalie stated the obvious, "he's dead."

* * *

Tony slipped his NCIS windbreaker on over his suit and followed behind Gibbs into the Pentagon. Finding Captain Lazaro dead was not apart of the plan, of course, this whole case was not going according to plain. "He's slipping boss," Tony whispered as the pair entered the office and flashed the Military Police their badges.

Gibbs huffed and agreed with his second, but stopped mid-stride when he saw that Natalie was sitting outside the office. "Callahan? Why aren't you helping McGee?"

"MP's said I wasn't NCIS, therefore I cannot be in there investigating," Natalie said, with a bit of a pout. "I showed them my real life badge from Boston myself. They responded by taking my gun."

"Sir," the leader of the MP's said, "I was told that only NCIS was to be investigating this."

Gibbs resisted the urge to roll his eyes and gestured with his index finger for Natalie to stand up. "Ms. Callahan is in the process of becoming an NCIS agent, her paper work hasn't cleared yet—some kind of mix up. Right now she's working as a liaison for the Boston Police Department."

The MP was slightly confused. "So, she's on your team, sir?"

"Uh-huh. Can she have her gun back?"

"Yes, sir."

Natalie was handed her weapon and allowed to go into the office behind Gibbs and Tony. When she was out of the earshot of the MP's she laughed, "Wow, nice little white lie there, Gibbs. Telling them that I was training to become an agent."

Gibbs gave her a little smirk before going about his work. Tony chuckled as he handed her a pair of latex gloves. "How'd you get into the office?" he asked, snapping his own gloves on.

"I picked the lock with my credit card. You would think the Pentagon would have better locks on these doors," Natalie said.

"Judging by the amount of security just to get into the building, I'm thinking locks on the doors were not a priority. Did McGee panic? He always hates when we break and enter," Tony said with a smile. "Even when we have probable cause to do so. Little-by-the-book-McGee. I really am fond of him."

Gibbs shot him a glare across the room. Tony quickly shut up and went to work, taking photographs. He pulled his camera back slightly when he caught sight of someone on the desk. "Hey, Callahan, what do you think this is?" he asked, pointing towards a white powder.

Natalie paused and waited until Tony had snapped a photograph. "Could be a roofie. Looks like there's a water ring where a glass was sitting next to it."

"Petty Officer Wilson confirmed that Lieutenant Westfled was the last person to enter the office before we got here," McGee reported coming back into the office. "He didn't think anything was up when the Lieutenant left, said he was acting normal."

"He didn't hear anything?" Gibbs asked.

"No."

Ducky and Palmer shouldered their way into the room then. "Ah, what have we here gentleman...and lady," he said smiling at Natalie.

Gibbs pointed towards the body. "Captain Raymond Lazaro. McGee and Callahan came here to interview him about Lieutenant Westfled and found him dead. Looks like blunt force trama to the head, Duck."

"Yes," Ducky said, leaning down to inspect the body. "Judging from the pooling of blood, I would say the same thing. Although, there are no signs of a struggle, which you think there would be if someone was about to bash your head on a desk."

"Could he have been drugged?" Tony asked, pointing back to the white powder on the desk.

"Oh, certainly, it would explain why there are no defense wounds," Ducky said. "His killer waited until he was inhibited by the drug. As you all were witness to when Ms. Callahan was given the GHB, these types of drugs are _very _powerful and act quickly. I will have to run blood tests. You should bag that powder, Anthony. Abby can determine what type of drug it is or if it is just sugar from the Captain's breakfast."

Tony nodded his head and began to bag the powder. As he was doing so, Natalie pressed the voicemail button on the Captain's phone. Most of the messages were from co-workers, one from his wife, and the last one was from McGee. _"Captain Lazaro, this is Special Agent Timothy McGee from NCIS. We need to speak to you about Lieutenant Martin Westfled. He's a suspect in a sexual assault case and we need to ask you a few questions. If you could call me back at this number, it's very much appreciated."_

Natale stared at the phone for a moment. "McGee."

"Yeah?"

"Can you determine _when _these messages were retrieved?"

"We should be able to. I would just have to access the Pentagon's switchboard."

Tony cocked a small grin at her, "What's going on in that pretty little head, Detective?"

Natale glared at him, half in jest, half not. "What if Lieutenant Westfled came in here _when _the Captain retrieved the message? Maybe he stayed so they could _talk _about it, and he felt cornered. So he drugged Lazaro, and then killed him."

"Kind of harsh," Tony said. "We hadn't even arrested him yet."

"Westfled isn't used to being caught. And he knew he was caught the moment McGee said he was suspect," Natalie argued. "Remember we talked about him slipping up? Well...this is his slip up. This was a spur of the moment kill."

Tony let his camera fall around his neck. "He keeps the roofies on him at all times, just in case. One doesn't know when one is going to need them."

Natalie nodded. "McGee and I found prints all over this place before the MP's kicked me out. Any bets that some belong to Martin?"

"I'm not a betting man," Tony said with a shrug.

"You place bets all the time," McGee snapped at him. "Do I need to remind you of the Kentucky Derby last year?"

"I thought you said we'd never speak of that again?" Tony countered.

Gibbs wanted to slap both of them on the back of the head, but resisted. Instead he smiled at Natalie, and said, "See...thinking like an agent already." He ordered the team to finish up. He was going to go ask for security footage and then head out for coffee.

Natalie, still wondering what made Gibbs think she was thinking like an agent, asked, "Why doesn't he just get his coffee intravenously?"

"Because," Tony teased, "He wouldn't be able to enjoy it that way." He packed his gear and informed the rest of them that he was going to put a BOLO out for Westfled's car. "He couldn't have gotten too far. We're gonna get him today."

"Mister Palmer let's get the Captain out of here and back to NCIS," Ducky said, finishing up himself.

"Right away, Dr. Mallard," Palmer said cheerfully, going to retrieve the gurney.

Natalie and McGee cleaned up the rest of the gear and packed it. On their way back to the NCIS truck, she inquired, "So...tell me about the Kentucky Derby last year..."

McGee gave her a huge grin before diving straight into the story.


	8. Is That a Job Offer?

**Warnings: **Mentions of child abuse. Spoilers for anything up to Season 7

**A/N: **So sorry that this is so late. RL and writer's block got in the way. I seemed to have found my grove again so hopefully I can get back to more frequent updates. This chapter is a bit shorter than the rest, but it's time to move onto the next arc of this story.

**As always, your feedback is appreciated and I do read all your reviews even if I do not get the time to respond to them!**

**Guest- **Thank you. I will never understand why people have to be mean and nasty to writers on here. If a story is not your cup of tea just stop reading and find something else to read. There are plenty of stories on this site to choose from.

* * *

Lieutenant Martin Westfled stood, not sat, in the interrogation room, staring blankly at the one-way mirror. His dark brown eyes were devoid of any emotion, giving him a robotic like appearance. Tony stood in Observation, arms over his chest, watching the stoic stance and feeling cold chills run up and down his spine.

Natalie, leading the interrogation, didn't seemed at all bothered by Westfled's lack of emotion. It had been about an hour since State Troopers had brought the escaping lieutenant back to the Navy Yard, and about forty-five minutes since the Boston detective had started her line of questioning. She was pretty much going easy on him, trying to earn his trust but had been met with very little results so far. "_NCIS has a lot of evidence against you, Lieutenant. But I know…some people in the Boston D.A's office…if you cooperate with us on that Jane Doe we found…well…I might be able to get you a pretty sweet deal."_

"_Detective Callahan, I haven't been to Boston in a long time," _Westfled said, refusing to look at her. "_You must have me mistaken for some other guy."_

She shook her head and pulled a piece of paper from her file. "_Are you sure you haven't been to Boston? Your last ship assignment was in port the same week our Jane Doe was murdered, two weeks before you took the post here in Washington. Now, I haven't interviewed your former shipmates yet, but I bet they're going to tell me that you were there, in Boston. So…why'd you do it? Why kill her?"_

Westfled's eyes flickered towards the detective and he scowled. "_She was a partying whore," _he snapped. _"She got what she deserved."_

"_Are we talking about my Jane Doe…or your mother?"_

Tony noticed that question got more of a reaction out of Westfled than anything else she had asked him yet. His face clouded over with anger and his glare hardened on the mirror in front of him. Tony clenched his fists at his sides, feeling nervous butterflies in his stomach. He hated the idea of leaving Natalie in there alone, with this monster who was capable of snapping at a single moment and snuffing the life out of someone. But Gibbs had insisted that it had to be Natalie.

Natalie hadn't argued and if she was nervous about being in the same room, alone, with a serial killer, she wasn't showing it. "_Your mother, she was Navy right?" _the detective asked pretending to look for something in her folder. "_A lieutenant commander…interesting that my Jane Doe was found dressed in a uniform of a Navy lieutenant commander. She liked to party too, huh? Got drunk a lot…you were her punching bag."_

"_Yes, my mother abused me. Lots of kids get abused, Detective."_

"_Yes, but not a lot of kids grow up to be killers."_

Westfled finally looked at her—a dark, predatory gleam in his eyes and Tony found himself inching towards the door ever so slightly. He didn't like this, hanging her out there like a piece of meat for the hungry lion to snatch up. But this is what the boss wanted. Even stated he'd sent Ziva in there alone countless times as well. However, Gibbs had often referred to Ziva as a weapon herself, and while Tony had no doubt that Natalie could handle herself, she couldn't kill someone eighteen different ways with a paperclip.

Gibbs, standing besides him silently, must have noticed his flinch. "Stand down, skippy. She's doing just fine."

Tony scowled at the team leader. "She gets him angry enough he could snap her neck before either of us gets in that room."

"I'm sure that the Boston Police Department taught her some line of self-defense," Gibbs responded with a slight grin.

"_Is this the problem, Lieutenant? Your mother was a monster, who drank and partied too much and when you see women like her—you snap?"_

_"My mother got what she deserved. It was no surprise to me that she was killed the way she lived her life. But I didn't kill her."_

_"Finger prints found on her uniform suggest that you did."_

Westfled stiffened and looked away, going back to staring at the wall. "_The test must have been wrong." _

Natalie shook her head. "_No. No I don't think so. They were tested by some of the best forensic specialists that NCIS has. Doubt they botched a simple finger print match. Come on, Martin, just admit it." _She got up from her chair and squared her shoulders. "_You killed her. To end the nightmare, to get back at her all those times she hurt you. But it wasn't enough. So you killed someone else that looked like her, and you did it again and again because it was never enough."_

_"You can't prove anything," _the Lieutenant hissed at her.

"_Are you scared to admit that you became a monster….just like her?" _

It happened in a flash, Tony wasn't even sure he thought coherently as he flew from the observation room as the table went flying through the air. Westfled was screaming at Natalie, cursing her and calling her vulgar names. By the time Tony flung the door to interrogation open, Natalie had her back to the wall, the file on the floor, papers scattered about. Tony's instincts took over. He rushed at the suspect. "Sit down!" he shouted, pushing Westfled into the chair. "You want to add assaulting a police officer to your laundry list of charges? Because I have no problem smacking you around a bit if you touch her."

"You won't _touch_ me," Westfled growled, "They have rules against that."

"Go at her again—and all bets are off," Tony said, a threatening tone to his voice. He stepped between the detective and Westfled. "You're going a way for a long, long time, pal. You're probably going to die in jail—guess there is some justice in the world after all."

"I think we're done. I want a lawyer."

Tony glared at the lieutenant and gestured for Natalie to leave with him. Slamming the door shut behind him he glanced at the agents standing guard. "He doesn't go anywhere in this building without _two _escorts."

Natalie rolled her eyes as the two began to walk. "Two? Really? He sees the writing on the wall. It's why he reacted violently to me. It's why he reacted violently to Captain Lazaro questioning him about McGee's phone call."

"Wonderful. You're welcome by the way."

"For what exactly? Rushing in there and ending my interrogation?"

"Did you want to be his next snapped neck?"

"Pretty presumptuous of you—just like your pick in the Derby last year."

Tony stopped and glared at her. "McGee told you, didn't he?"

Natalie smiled, sweetly, "He was happy too. I'm surprised at you, Tony. I mean…you seem like a pretty smart guy…yet you took the advice of a psychic on which horse to bet on."

He scowled as they walked briskly towards the bullpen. "Listen. Abby had me go to this party with her…I drank….well…I couldn't even tell you what was in that drink—my judgment was a _little _impaired."

"That was Abby," McGee said, slamming his phone down when the pair appeared in the bullpen. "We got a positive DNA match on Amber's rape kit. Westfled is our guy."

"Good thing you guys are better at solving cases than placing bets," Natalie teased. "Or none of this would have come together so fast."

McGee shrugged his shoulders with a smile, even as Tony glared at him and snarled under his breath, "You're a dead man, probie."

Gibbs appeared in typical fashion than, coffee cup glued to his hand, "Can't kill him, DiNozzo. Already down one agent. I don't want to be down two."

Tony grumbled something and went to his desk. "Should I call JAG in?"

"Already been informed. Sending a lawyer now for Westfled. You get anything?" Gibbs asked, Natalie.

"He didn't confess to killing his mother or my Jane Doe, but with the evidence we have, well…he knows his time is limited," Natalie replied. "I'm sure once jail time gets thrown about he'll start talking—anything to lessen his sentence."

Tony scrunched is face up in disgust. "No way he gets anything less than life."

Natalie turned to face him. "They could argue mental instability."

"It would never fly," the senior field threw back. "He _knew _right from wrong."

"Again that's pretty presumptuous of you."

"I swear to God, Callahan, you better not even breathe the word _derby." _

Gibbs chuckled, sipped his coffee and glanced towards the stairs. There was something that he needed to talk to Vance about before they officially wrapped this case up.

* * *

"Lieutenant Westfled is our killer then?" Vance inquired, when Gibbs appeared in his office. "Who knew that such a quiet, well respected officer had such a dark side?"

"It's always the quiet ones you have to look out for, Leon," Gibbs said with a shrug. "DiNozzo's booked him and JAG's coming over to lay out the fine details. But, chances are he's going to take a deal and this isn't going to trial."

Vance nodded. "Did Detective Callahan get what she was looking for?"

Gibbs raised his brows in thought. "Well, Lieutenant Westfled certainly murdered his mother—in the same fashion that Callahan's Jane Doe was murdered…fourteen other victims between them too—yeah, I think she got exactly what she was looking for."

"Did you?"

"Depends. Did you approve what I asked for?"

Vance smiled, slightly and reached for a piece of paper on his desk. "Your gut telling you this is the right thing to do?"

Gibbs snatched the paper from the Director before he could change his mind. "Oh, yeah, definitely, Leon. I think you'll see eventually I'm right."

"As hard as this is to believe, Gibbs. I _do _trust you."

"Yeah. I know, Leon."

Vance sighed and sat back down at his desk. "Well then," he said, softly, "here's hoping that your gut has it right."

* * *

By the time JAG had tied everything up in neat, legal little bows, it was close to midnight. Natalie had called Boston, informed them that with NCIS' help she was able to close their Jane Doe case. After being grilled by Natalie, then Gibbs and Tony, Westfled had been primed to talk to JAG when they showed up. She had his statement now confessing to the crime, a name to their victim, and finally some closure to this case that had been nagging at her since the body first turned up.

"So, heading back to Boston?" Tony asked with a gentle smile, breaking into her thoughts. "

"Yes. My flight leaves in the morning," Natalie replied, packing her laptop away in it's leather bag. She slipped the strap over her shoulder. "Thanks," she told him with a smile. "I…I don't think I could have closed this case without you guys helping me."

Tony tipped his head slightly. "Anytime, Callahan. Going to miss you around here. It was nice having more than McTechnobabble to talk too."

Natalie smiled one last time and said her good-byes. McGee was on the phone but held his hand up in a wave, and Tony just let his smile fade ever so slightly. She turned about and headed towards the elevator, pressing the button. When the doors opened, she was surprisingly not alarmed that Gibbs was there was his coffee. By her count it was his tenth cup that day. Or, it could now be considered his first cup of _today, _since it was after midnight.

Gibbs looked at her, fondly. "Going home?"

"Yes," she said, "Flight leaves first thing in the morning for Logan."

"How long will it take you to pack?" Gibbs asked, taking a sip of his coffee as he stepped out of the elevator.

"Pack…pack what? My things in my hotel room? I...barely unpacked."

Gibbs handed her a piece of paper. Not bothering to say a word, just stood there sipping his coffee, gauging her reactions.

Natalie read it over slightly confused. "This is _my _NCIS application….but I didn't fill one out."

"I did. All it needs is your signature on the dotted line," Gibbs replied with a grin on his face.

"Does Director Vance know about this?"

"He approved it. So, yes. Go on...sign it."

"Are you offering me a job?" Natalie asked.

Gibbs took a sip of his coffee and smiled as a memory ran through his head. _Is that a job offer? _Kate's voice echoed in his brain. "You'll learn I have a lot of rules, and one of them is you don't waste good. You're good at what you do, Callahan. So, that job offer...well it depends. Are you up for the challenge?"

Natalie thought about it for the briefest of seconds and then snatched the pen he was holding out to her. This was totally on impulse. It wasn't like she was looking for a new job. She loved her job. Loved Boston. But there had been something different about working with Gibbs and his team. At first she thought it was because she wasn't used to them, but as the case moved on, she realized it was because these agents were passionate about the job and they cared deeply for each other. As she handed the application back to Gibbs she thought, fleetingly, _God I hope I know what I'm doing. _


	9. Probie

**Warnings: **Spoilers for anything up to Season 7

**A/N: **I know that it has been a long time since an update and I apologize for that. **As always, your feedback is appreciated and I do read all your reviews even if I do not get the time to respond to them!**

**kathy-** _Thank you, I didn't think I was bashing Ziva either. Certainly there are much worse fics out there that really are bashing. And yes, I agree that I did no worse than what the actual writers of the show did. For someone that claimed to love Tony she sure put him down a lot, which makes it really hard for me to buy into this "tiva" nonsense._

* * *

Natalie soon realized that "on the job training" meant just that. No sooner had she been handed her new probationary agent credentials and assigned a weapon, than she was off on a case. It was a simple case, easy open and shut, and she was glad for that, but now the team was languishing around the squad room and she had been shipped back and forth to FLET-C courses when the instructors were available to train her.

But today there were no open slots. Natalie was shoved a stack of paperwork to fill out, all apart of the probie hazing, as Tony put it with his trademark grin. Now, she was struggling to get through it all and pass it on time as to not incur the wrath of Gibbs.

"Time to roll," Tony announced appearing in the bullpen. "Bossman got the signal. He's sending us."

"Just us?" McGee asked, grabbing his gear. "Wow, whatever Vance has him shacked up in MTAC for must be important."

"Don't know, didn't ask," Tony said, grabbing his own gear.

McGee paused midway through packing up and gave his senior partner an incredulous look. "You want me to believe for one second that you didn't ask _why _Gibbs wasn't joining us?"

Tony didn't answer, not verbally anyways. He just shot the younger man a look while holstering his weapon and that was the end of the conversation. Natalie had learned quickly that the three agents that she was working with had some sort of silent communication thing going on. Gibbs and Tony seemed to have it nailed down, and McGee could read both of them all well and good _most _times, but she was still struggling to find her footing.

"Hey, Probie," Tony called out to her. "Are you coming?"

"Yes!" Natalie sputtered, sprinting towards the elevator when she realized she had been left behind. "Where are we going?" she asked, slipping into the cab between the two men.

"Norfolk. Dead petty officer was found this morning by his bunkmates," Tony replied, pressing the button for the garage.

McGee was certainly curious now as to why Gibbs was not joining them on this trip. A dead Navy man and the team leader was staying behind working on something in MTAC? It was not very Gibbs like. And it made him a little nervous. "Any idea what happened?"

Tony sighed and clicked his tongue. "Apparently he hung himself."

Natalie chuckled, lowly. "Apparently? Do you think there's some kind of conspiracy going on that ship to make sailors look like they committed suicide?"

"Rule 8, Natalie," Tony reminded her. "Never assume."

"Uh, am I ever going to get a written copy of the rules so I can learn them?" Natalie questioned, slightly annoyed. "Besides having to learn NCIS rules and regulations I have to learn Gibbs' too!"

Tony scratched behind his ear and smiled at her, slyly. "There's no rule book. You either learn them or you don't."

Natalie threw him a not so amused look. "And if I don't?"

"Guess then you go back to Boston."

"Fantastic."

"Don't worry, Natalie, it took me a long time to learn them too."

"There are just _so _many," she fussed as she climbed into the van on the passenger side and slammed the door shut. "And I think half of them were written when Tony came along."

McGee laughed as he buckled himself in and started the van up, following behind Tony in the Charger. "Doubt anyone, even Tony, would argue with you on that one." He settled in for the long ride a head of him, glad that he had Natalie to keep him company and not Gibbs or Tony. Gibbs hated to talk and Tony liked to talk too much for his liking most of the time. Besides, Natalie had been pretty much off doing her own thing with FLET-C when they were not working a case so there hadn't been a lot of opportunity to get to know her. "So," he finally said, breaking the silence, "You grew up in Boston. I went to MIT."

Natalie smiled at him. "I had a boyfriend from MIT once."

"Oh? Really?"

"Yeah. He did my chemistry homework for me. Lots of guys at MIT willing to go out with me in exchange for homework."

"Probably a dime a dozen."

"Were you one of those guys, McGee?"

McGee shook his head. "No. My dad had me so focused on excelling at my career that I didn't pay too much attention to girls. Dated one from my bio lab, but that was when I went to John Hopkins."

Natalie processed what he had just said, then asked, "Why didn't you go into the Navy? Like your dad?"

"Because that's what he wanted."

"Didn't know you were a rebel, McGee."

McGee laughed. Neither did he, until she had pointed that out to him. Yeah...he liked riding with her a lot better than Tony or Gibbs.

* * *

Norfolk was a long, boring drive. Natalie hated every moment of it. Not that McGee wasn't good company, but she found that she related to Tony more and well, Tony was incredibly good at filling up that awkward silence with mindless movie trivia. By the time the team arrived, minus Gibbs of course, Natalie and McGee hadn't said a word for thirty minutes. But that didn't seem to faze the agents, they got right to work. In the quarters of Petty Officer Rod Wilson, McGee met up with Ducky and Palmer and began to process the scene.

Tony took Natalie with him to question the bunkmates that had found the body. They met up with the agent afloat, who had the three other young men that bunked with Wilson waiting in his office. "Agent George Dixon," he introduced shaking both the other agent's hands briefly. "Hopefully you can get these three to talk. I had no luck."

"Rule number one, Dixon," Tony snapped.

"Pardon?"

"Probie."

"Rule number one—never put suspects together in the same room."

Tony smiled at her, however briefly it was. "Ah, nicely done, Probie. You're learning. Might be able to make an NCIS agent out of you yet."

Dixon was still slightly perplexed. "I'm confused, Agent DiNozzo. Petty Officer Wilson killed himself. How are any of these bunkmates a suspect? Unless you think one of them provided the rope for the noose around his neck."

"Well, that's our job to find out. Wait out here," Tony said, harshly before entering the quarters.

Natalie looked at the other agent, apologetically before stepping inside herself. Tony had put his back pack down and was glaring at the three young men standing at attention against the wall. He paced the small space for a moment, stopping at eye level with each sailor before continuing on to the next. She wasn't sure what he was doing. Tim had once mentioned that Tony had his own style and that you got used to it after a while.

Tony paused in his pacing and said, darkly, "Alright, gentleman, who's gonna talk to me first?"

All three sailors glanced at each other, while Tony stood there cracking his knuckles to intimidate them. Finally one of them spoke up and pointed towards Natalie. "I'd rather talk to her. She doesn't look like she's gonna pounce on me."

"Yeah," another one piped up. "Her. We'll talk to her."

"You will, huh?" Tony said with a sly grin. "Okay. I'll let that happen _if _you can stop undressing her with your eyes."

Chuckles passed between the sailors and Tony's gaze turned deadly. Immediately all three sailors paled. "Something funny, gentlemen?"

All three shook their heads and stammered at the same time, "No sir."

Tony glanced behind him at a bewildered Natalie before turning back towards the sailors. "Good. Now talk."

"Listen, sir," the first sailor stammered, "Rod...he...he hadn't been right since we got into port forty-eight hours ago. Ya know, acting all paranoid that someone was out to get him...hearing voices."

Natalie watched as Tony nodded his head, silently taking note of what was being said to him. The infirmary had not mentioned if Petty Officer Wilson had gone down to report any hallucinations or hearing voices. Of course, she knew that many people that had delusions did not report them. So it was entirely possible that their dead petty officer had slipped into a psychotic episode. She shifted slightly on her feet, noticed that the second sailor eyed her, and asked, "Do you know if Petty Officer Wilson had a history of mental illness?"

Tony glanced at her, his face expressionless, but his eyes were intense. She stepped back slightly and muttered an apology. He rolled his eyes and responded, "Rule 6, Callahan, never say you're sorry." Turning back towards the second sailor he titled his head. "Well, answer the lady's question."

He shook his head. "No ma'am or sir...who...who am I speaking too?"

"Me," Tony said, firmly. "Wilson use drugs?"

"No sir," the second sailor replied. "He was as straight as they come sir. Never even seen him touch alcohol when we were on liberties."

"Huh. Funny because we got the tox screen back from our lab. He had traces of LSD in his blood."

Natalie did her best to hide her shock. They hadn't even removed the body from the ship yet. There was no way Abby Sciuto could have gotten a tox screen done on the petty officer's blood that quickly. Tony was clearly bluffing. She wondered why. Did he see something that she didn't? She did, however, notice the third sailor's fingers twitch. He had been remarkably quiet while his buddies were offering up the information on Wilson. "Do you know something about the LSD?" she directed towards the twitchy sailor.

Tony now watched the third sailor closely, seeing his twitch and not surprised that Natalie had noticed. He was learning that she had the eyes of an eagle, which sometimes was turning out to be a problem for him trying to be sneaky around McGee's desk when he thought no one was looking. "Sailor?" he questioned the third man. "Are you gonna answer her or are we bringing you in?"

He panicked then, shoved Tony so hard that the senior field agent went crashing into the desk behind him, loosing his balance. Tony watched as the sailor tore past his stunned bunkmates and grabbed Natalie by the shoulders, pushing her so hard that she went flying back into the corridor. He heard a loud clang and thud, and Dixon curse. Pushing himself up, Tony took off down the corridor, noticing that his partner was on the ground. _Son of bitch, _he snarled as he shouted for their suspect to stop. "Hey!"

It didn't take Tony long to catch up with him. He had spent four months on an aircraft carrier, he knew how to chase someone. Tackling the younger man to the ground, he pinned the sailor's arms behind his back, and cuffed him. "Assaulting two federal agents, that might get you some time. But I have a feeling that we're gonna find out a whole slew of more interesting facts about you."

Tony handed the flustered sailor off to Dixon. He made his way back towards Natalie, who was still on the ground, rubbing her head. "Damn," he muttered. "Gibbs is gonna kill me."

Natalie looked up at him, puzzled, when he squatted down in front of her and lifted one eye lid open with his finger. "W-what happened?"

"You might have just experienced your first concussion on the job," Tony stated, drily.

"I feel like someone is playing the drums in my head," Natalie replied.

Tony smiled, sadly, and then helped her to her feet. He managed to grab both their back packs and made his way back to the top deck. Ducky and McGee were standing there, waiting for them. "Hey, Dixon bring our perp up?"

McGee nodded. "Yeah, he's putting him in the car now. What the hell happened? Dixon said the guy took off like a bat out of hell."

"Guess he didn't like our line of questioning," Tony mused handing Natalie's backpack off to McGee. "Take this back to the car. I'm gonna have Ducky check Natalie out while I call the boss and update him."

"He's not gonna be happy about that, you know," McGee said, gesturing towards Ducky leading Natalie to a place to sit so he could examine her. "She's only been on the job three weeks."

Tony clenched his fists. "Yeah. I know. I, however, was not expecting the guy to go into full flight mood." He pulled his cell phone out and dismissed the younger agent, calling up Gibbs' number and dialing. It didn't take the boss long to pick up. "Hey, boss. Thought you'd like an update."

Gibbs didn't sound pleased. Perhaps he would just leave the part out about Natalie getting hurt until he knew the extent of her injuries. "_DiNozzo, I'm in the middle of something with the Director. Make it brief."_

"Petty Officer Wilson might have hung himself because of drug induced paranoia. Not one hundred percent sure but two of his bunkmates are cooperating with the us, the third we're brining in for my questioning," Tony replied.

"_Very well. I trust you to handle it, DiNozzo," _Gibbs snapped.

Tony felt his gut tingling. "Boss...there something going on that I need to know about?" There was silence on the other end and Tony chuckled, lightly. "Right...need to know...and I don't need to know. I'll check in later." He hung the phone up and put it back into his pocket, striding over towards Ducky and Natalie. "So?" he asked the medical examiner.

Ducky looked up into the sunlight at the SFA. "Doesn't appear to be a concussion. She will just have a nasty headache for the next several hours. I can give her some painkillers when we get back to NCIS but I suggest that she is taken off of field duty for a few days."

Natalie groaned. "And I was just starting to get on Gibbs' good side."

"I'm not sure Gibbs has a good side, Callahan," Tony said. "So I wouldn't worry about it too much." _What I would worry about though is how secretive he's being, because that never ends well for any of us._

* * *

"Hate lying to him, Leon," Gibbs said when he hung up with Tony. "He's the best agent I've ever worked with. He's gonna know."

"You didn't exactly lie to him," Vance pointed out. "You didn't say anything."

Gibbs sighed and rubbed his temple for a moment. "Petty Officer Wilson's case is only going to preoccupy them a bit longer, Leon, and then what? Do we tell them we've been tracking Ziva and Mossad because we're worried?"

Vance set his jaw. "This agency has had the wool pulled over our eyes by Mossad before. I want to stay a head of the game. Eli might be a _friend _but I have always been of the belief that he is never completely honest with me. So, I'm not taking it at face value that Ziva is back in Israel like Eli says she is."

"Rivkin was here taking care of sleeper cell that worked for a terrorist based in Africa," Gibbs recited. "Do you think he ordered her to take the rest of that mission?"

"Possible. Dunham found out that a freighter carrying four Israelis left Jordan in May. He's trying to track down the ship and its crew as we speak," Vance informed him.

Gibbs sighed and got up, reaching for his coffee. "Tell him it's a futile effort. Knowing Mossad that entire crew is dead."

Vance wasn't going to argue with that. "I'm surprised your team isn't already looking for her."

"Ms. David almost destroyed my team back in May...I let personal feelings get in the way of seeing that," Gibbs said, harshly. "That chapter of our lives has closed. And I think I'd like it to stay closed."

"So, speaking of new chapters, how _is _Ms. Callahan working out for you?"

Gibbs smiled, slightly and titled his head. "Keeps DiNozzo on his toes, knows how to work a crime scene and I heard she makes killer chocolate chip cookies."

Vance chuckled. "So, well then?"

"So far so good."

"That's good to hear because Boston wasn't happy we took her away from them."

Gibbs scoffed before leaving. "They'll get over it." They were going to have too, anyhow, because Natalie was apart of the team now and filling that missing piece nicely. He'd be damned if he let that hole open up again.


	10. I Spy

**Warnings:** Spoilers for ending of Season 6, Abby is not particularly nice here, and I mention Ziva.

**A/N: **Here is some more! I'm glad that everyone is happy that Natalie is staying :). I think her addition to the team is going to change quite a few of the things we saw on the show. Mainly getting rid of the nasty comments that the writers like to dole out every now and then. I'm writing this much in the way that writers showed us in Season 11 and (hopefully) will continue in Season 12. Guess time will tell and I'm really itching for this hiatus to be over.

**NCIS Fan-** _thanks for catching that mistake...that's what I get for having two different documents open at the same time on two different stories haha_

**Guest- **_yes, Natalie does need to learn how to read Tony as well as Gibbs, but she's a profiler so she has the training to learn, glad you are enjoying this! :)_

* * *

Tony entered MTAC, carefully trying to be as quiet as possible. But, the slightest movement alerted Gibbs and he cut the transmission short, not before he told Agent Dunham that he was getting a bit scruffy and that he'd be in touch later that day. "Need me?" he asked, turning his attention to Tony.

"Petty Officer Wilson had high levels of LSD in his system. He hung himself probably blitzed out of his mind," Tony said handing the file to the team leader. "One of his bunkmates finally admitted, after spending the night in lock-up, to being the one to slip him the drug in his water to get him to _lighten up._"

"Same bunkmate that assaulted both you and Callahan yesterday?" Gibbs questioned, signing off on Tony's report. The SFA mutely nodded. Gibbs handed him the file. "Nice work, DiNozzo. You closed the case and nearly did it without anyone getting a head injury."

Tony frowned, still feeling guilty that Natalie had gotten hurt on the job. "Uh…thanks, boss. Anything I can help you with here?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Nope."

"Dunham is stationed out in the Middle East—this wouldn't have to do with Ziva or Mossad would it?" Tony asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"DiNozzo…," Gibbs warned, his own eyes becoming a steel gaze.

Tony sighed and took his cue to leave. "Very well, boss. We're here if you need us."

* * *

Natalie glanced up from her work as Tony made his way back down towards the bullpen. Judging from the look on his face he hadn't learned anything new about Gibbs hiding away in MTAC the last couple of days with Vance. She had heard him murmuring with McGee about Mossad and Ziva, and she was pretty sure that he was unaware that she had been listening in. It flustered her a little that neither of them wanted her to be involved. Wasn't she apart of their team now? And teams were not supposed to keep secrets…right?

Tony eyed McGee and gave a small shake of his head before sitting down at his desk to get to work. Natalie also hated the way the other three agents could silently communicate with each other. Ducky told her that she was smart and would figure it out in no time, but three weeks of this…she was slowly starting to lose her patience.

"Hey, DiNozzo," a deep voice said, bringing the three agents attention around to a tall, slender men standing in their squad room. "Gibbs around?"

"Up in MTAC with the Director," Tony answered, forcing a smile, "while us peons work down here. What's up Balboa?"

Balboa's brow furrowed. "He let you work that drug case alone?"

Tony chuckled and tossed a completed form onto his "done" pile. He nodded, "Yes…and we almost got away without a scratch."

"Almost?"

"Newbie here banged her head."

Balboa smiled, softly at her before leaving. "Don't worry, Callahan—you've got a ways to go to break DiNozzo's record." He reached out and slapped his friend on the back as he left, dodging out of the way of a sprinting Abby.

"I need to see you boys, in my lab-NOW," Abby announced, standing in the middle of the bullpen.

"Why?" McGee asked. They weren't working any cases at the moment. Nothing she had to say couldn't wait until after lunch. He was starving. "It can't wait until after lunch?"

"Or," Tony offered, coldly, "Better yet, just said to us here."

Abby scowled at him, glanced over her shoulder at Natalie who was working on some paper work, rubbing the bump she had received on her head the other day. The forensic scientist looked back at the two men. "This is something rather...I would just rather tell it to you in my lab."

Tony stood, slamming his bottom drawer shut, which startled Natalie and McGee out of their stupors. "Does it have something to do with a case?" he asked, still with that cold tone of voice.

"Sort of...an older case," Abby confessed, with a slight wince.

"Well, then you can tell us right here."

"It's not really something that concerns Agent Callahan."

And there it was, McGee thought, slightly annoyed. For the last three weeks Abby had tolerated Natalie on the team as best she could, whining behind the young woman's back about how long it was taking Gibbs to get Ziva back from Israel and she never called Natalie by her first name. It was always _Agent Callahan. _Some might think that was out of respect but McGee and Tony knew otherwise. McGee was aware that her constant whining to Tony about Ziva and getting Natalie shipped back to Boston was starting to get on the SFA's nerves.

Tony, however, looked more than annoyed with Abby. In fact, he looked down right pissed off. "Agent Callahan is a member of our team now, Abs, and whatever you have to say—she's allowed to hear it."

"Fine," Abby snapped, somewhat surprised by his angry tone of voice, "I found something on Tabal's laptop."

"You did?" McGee questioned, shocked. "That thing was fried."

"It took a lot of work."

"What did you find?"

Abby shot another look at Natalie, who was listening intently. She turned her glare towards Tony, but the SFA didn't back down from his earlier stance. He returned the firm glare. "I think it's a code for Rivkin's mission. If I can crack it then I think I can locate Ziva."

McGee frowned. "Are we looking for her?"

"Why do you think Vance and Gibbs are upstairs in MTAC all day? Yes! NCIS is looking for her! She's gone off the grid! She could be in trouble! I know she would have contacted us by now if she wasn't! She didn't want to leave! She was _forced!_"

"She wasn't forced to do anything. She told Gibbs she couldn't work with me anymore. So, not our problem to worry about," Tony said with a wave of his hand. "She's Mossad again, Abby. She doesn't want our help."

Abby looked appalled at him. "TONY! How can you say that! She's your partner!"

Tony spun on his heel, storms raging in his eyes. "Was my partner, Abby. And she accused me of betraying her, of killing Rivkin because I was jealous. She held a gun to my chest and told me she wished I had died instead. Why in God's name would I want to go after her? Not like she would accept my help in the first place."

"She…she what?" Abby stuttered. "I…I don't believe you. She would _never _do that! You…you were her partner!"

"Well, she did. Ducky has the photographs of the bruises to prove it," Tony snapped, shoving his wallet into his pocket. "I'm going to pick up lunch. Be back shortly."

McGee saw the look of betrayal that went through Abby's eyes. He'd felt the same way when he'd learned what Ziva had done to Tony, but now that he had a lot more time to process what happened, he wasn't as angry. Mossad was _who _Ziva was and they more often than not resorted to violence out of necessity to survive. He wouldn't condone her actions, but given her background he was no longer surprised. "Abs…we didn't tell you because you were already upset that she had left."

Abby's lower lip trembled slightly. "But…I thought we were her friends? How could she possibly think what Tony did was out of jealousy! He was trying to protect her!"

"Beats me, Abs. Better off just…moving on."

"I'm…I'm going to go tell Gibbs what I found. I think…I think he is going to want to hear it."

McGee watched her go, letting out a heavy sigh. Apparently, even though they had found a new member for their team—there was still a ton of healing to do. And now that Abby knew the truth about what happened in Israel, well, maybe she'd start to treat Natalie better. McGee went back to his paperwork, his stomach growling he had focused on what Tony was going to bring them back for lunch.

Natalie suddenly reminded him that she was sitting there. "Um…can I be brought up to speed? Tabal? Rivkin? Those names mean nothing to me."

"Michael Rivkin was a Mossad operative that killed at least two terrorists here in the States and an ICE agent," McGee said with a shake of his head. "He...he might have been Ziva's lover...she never really told us anything about him or her personal life. We suspect that Rivkin was the one to make it look like Tabal had committed suicide and took his laptop. Unfortunately it was destroyed when Ziva's apartment blew up."

"Blew up?" Natalie repeated. "Why would someone want to blow up her apartment?"

McGee shrugged his shoulders. "To erase all evidence that Rivkin was involved in the murders, that he was drunk the night he attacked Tony and was killed. Who knows."

"So...Tony killed Rivkin."

"In self defense."

"And Ziva...blamed him."

"Yes. She said he was jealous."

"Was he?"

McGee's brow furrowed. "Do I think he had feelings for Ziva? I guess...it's possible. But there's no way he shot Rivkin because he was jealous. Tony isn't really the jealous type."

Natalie looked away for a moment, thinking about what she wanted to ask next. "So...what was all that about Ziva holding a gun to his chest?"

"Vance made Tony go to Israel, so Mossad could _interview _him. According to Tony she confronted him and took him down, kicked his legs out from underneath him and shoved her weapon into his chest," McGee replied, softly.

"That...that's..."

"Betrayal," Gibbs voice said, softly above her.

Natalie glanced up to see him standing there, his blue eyes studying her face. "McGee was just...um filling me on what I'd missed."

Gibbs nodded and turned towards McGee. "Need you to help Abby crack that code on the laptop."

"Sure thing, boss," McGee said getting up and leaving the bullpen, not before he made Natalie promise to call him when lunch arrived.

Natalie assured him that she would then got to her feet, which sent the blood rushing to her head and made the bruise throb. She closed her eyes for a moment to gain her balance and then stalked towards Gibbs desk. "So…Abby was right…you are looking for Officer David?" Gibbs' blue eyes stared at her long and hard, but he didn't say anything. Natalie bit down on her lower lip and continued, "Gibbs…I know you're a smart man…one doesn't make it in this line of work being a dummy, but even so, you have to admit…going to the Middle East to find someone that pretty much betrayed you…is stupid."

Gibbs quirked a grin when he saw her brace herself for what—a head slap? A tongue lashing? He sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "We aren't going after Ziva. Mossad has burned us too many times. Vance and I want to stay ahead of the game this time."

"You're spying on them," Natalie suggested.

"If it means keeping my people safe—then yes," Gibbs said, seriously, his eyes hardening on hers.

Natalie could sense the not so pleasant history with Mossad in his tone and from the look on his face he wanted her to back off the line of questioning. She went back to her desk, silently, and realized with a little bit of surprise that she had _finally _broken through and was starting to learn the art of silent communication around here.

* * *

Tony clutched tightly to the bag of sandwiches. He did feel somewhat badly for the way he'd treated Abby but she had to know. Gibbs couldn't possibly be thinking about going after Ziva—no, Tony knew exactly what he was doing, even if Abby did not. The former marine was keeping tabs on Ziva so she and her dear daddy wouldn't burn the team and NCIS again.

With an angry sigh he stepped off the elevator and headed towards the bullpen. Natalie was alone working at her desk. It had been a much easier transition getting used to that desk being Natalie's and not Ziva's than it had been when the desk no longer belonged to Kate. "Brought lunch," Tony said, cheerfully, masking all signs of his anger. He dropped a sandwich down onto her desk. "Steak and cheese for the lady," he grinned. "Not too concerned about keeping your girlish figure are you, Callahan?"

"There's a reason treadmills were invented, DiNozzo," Natalie teased, opening up her sandwich. "If I'm going to have to work out anyways I might as well eat what I want," she said with a mouthful.

"You know…there's something sexy about a woman stuffing her face like that…" Tony tossed out, grinning at her from ear to ear.

Natalie glared at him ever so slightly but kept on eating. Tony sat down at his own desk and started on his own lunch—pastarmi on rye—and enjoyed the relative peace. It had been so tense around NCIS since the beginning of May…he was glad for the reprieve. "Where'd McGee run off too? I bought him lunch…he'll be the first to tell you that never happens."

Her eyes went wide and she shoved the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth. Grabbing her phone she dialed a number. "McGee! Lunch is here…yes I did forget…sorry," she said with a slight wince. Tony chuckled when she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, puzzled. "I think he just hung up on me."

"McGeek doesn't hold grudges. Don't worry about it."

"Oh. So can you hold a grudge?"

"Been known to happen," he answered as McGee appeared in the bullpen and got his lunch. He looked a little ragged. "You okay, Tim?"

McGee frowned and went to his desk. "Abby," was all he would offer up. And it was all Tony needed.

Tony winced and tossed his garbage in the trash bin. "Sorry. I…shouldn't have left you to deal with it. I'll talk to her later."

"Later is gonna have to wait!" Gibbs called down from above them. "You three are needed ASAP at Quantico."

McGee groaned as he wolfed down his sandwich and grabbed up his gear, following behind his fellow agents as they vaulted towards the elevator. Once inside and the cab was moving, he informed them, "Gibbs and Vance are keeping tabs on Ziva."

"I know," both Tony and Natalie said at the same time, surprising each other as well as McGee.

"Wait? You _both _know?" McGee asked, looking at them expectantly. "How?"

"Figured it out for myself."

"Me too…but Gibbs confirmed it."

"WHAT?" Tony and McGee exclaimed, shocked.

Natalie smiled, shyly at them. "Sometimes all you really have to do is ask."

Tony frowned at her. "I _did _ask. He didn't want to talk about it."

"Well…there's your problem," Natalie said as the elevator doors opened. "You just have to keep asking."

"Either you're brilliant, Callahan," Tony quipped as they filed out, "Or you have a very strong death wish."


	11. Authority

**Warnings: **Spoilers for Season 7 and an angry Tony

**A/N: ** Few guest reviews to get too first before plunging into another update :)

**Guest- **_I'm glad that you are loving this and Natalie. She is a blast to write!_

**earthdragon- **_it comes down to that when you take out the mean, belittling, humiliating snark, this team can be pretty damn awesome. This is why I love Ellie Bishop. She isn't mean or rude to Tony or McGee, she wants to learn from them and she seems to truly like them. Abby...well is Abby. It bothered me how she reacted when Vance reassigned the team, how she blamed Gibbs and demanded he get them back. And she wasn't very friendly to the air force girl they hired in Truth or Consequences. And I think there are a few people in this very fandom that need to realize that people move on from jobs ALL THE TIME and the world doesn't come to an end like you pointed out :). It was also about time that Tony stood up to Abby. _

**NCIS Fan- **_I can see why she was angry when Ziva joined the team...Kate had just been brutally murdered and she was grieving her friend. None of them (except McGee and Ducky) were practically nice to Ziva when she joined. And, no. They are not going after Ziva and they are not going to change their minds. I can't see Gibbs risking Natalie's life when she is still a probie or wanting to put Tony and Tim in danger after learning about Ziva assaulting his senior field agent._

**Guest-** _unfortunately, I think you are right that the writers for that season would have blamed Tony for Ziva's assault in Israel. It was the season that she hoisted up onto a pedestal. Don't get more wrong. I still like her character, but some of the things the writers did with her just made me cringe._

* * *

Blood was dripping from his nose, all over his nice, Ralph Lauren polo too. _Damnit, _Tony grumbled, glaring at the wide-eyed private that had struck him. "McGee..." he snarled with a half a mouthful of blood, "Cuff him."

McGee grimaced and slapped the handcuffs on the kid. It probably was a little extreme, after all Tony had been the one to get into the middle of the fight to break it up, but at the same time...it was assault of a federal agent and they were obligated to arrest the kid. Judging from the amount of blood pouring from Tony's nose, he knew that the SFA was going to be extra cranky. Tony was so sensitive when it came to his face and getting it messed up. McGee glanced down at his own attire and realized he didn't have a tie this time to help stop the blood flow.

Natalie stepped up, her grey eyes hardening on their senior field agent. They didn't need to arrest the kid. After all, it wasn't like he had intentionally punched Tony right between his eyes. She pulled her cotton button down shirt free from her slacks and began to undo it.

"Whoa, Callahan," Tony remarked with a grin underneath all the blood. "I don't want to have to arrest you for indecent exposure."

"You won't have too," Natalie said, calmly, pulling the blouse off to reveal a lacy thick shouldered tank underneath. It was tight fitting to her curves and covered up what needed to be, but it did nothing to hide the fact that she was, without a doubt, attractive. "Just so happens that I wore two shirts today incase you got your nose smashed in and was bleeding out all over the place."

Tony chuckled as Natalie used her hand to tilt his head back and apply pressure to his nose with her blouse. "You're not upset that I'm ruining your blouse."

Natalie clicked her tongue. "You'll just have to buy me a new one."

He agreed to that and kept his mouth shut. She was standing practically on top of him and he had a pretty decent shot down the lacy tank if he titled his eyes downward. He felt her hand grasp onto his hair and pulled his head back a little bit. Her way of telling him to keep his eyes off. It was probably a good idea. Breaking rule 12 wouldn't be good for any of them. Hell, he hadn't broken rule 12 in May and it had burned them all. Still...

"Agent DiNozzo," the Marine MP Captain interrupted. "What do you want me to do with the rest of these jokers?"

"Let the base commander know what happened and have him deal with it," Tony said with a sigh. "Tell him no one is pressing charges. Just a _friendly _basketball game that got a _bit _out of hand."

Natalie rolled her eyes. _A bit out of hand? _She repeated to herself. When they had been called it was to deal with a couple of marine privates that had gotten into a fight and MP's thought that assault charges should be brought up. By the time the team had arrived on base it was no longer a couple of privates, furious over any basketball game. It had turned into a group of them ganging up on _one _kid because he'd slept with another marine's girl. Which had then led to that marine's friends jumping in to start a brawl. _Men. _

Tony had immediately jumped into the fray that the MP's were trying to break up and was clocked by one of the combatants. Who was now sitting in the backseat of their car, waiting to go to NCIS for booking. She eyed the remaining seven privates, standing around, bloody and bruised. Natalie then looked back down at Tony and found his eyes wandering again. She yanked back on his hair, a bit harder this time and he yelped. "Don't you think we need to bring more than one of these guys in?"

"For a fight? No. No one was hurt beyond bruises, and bloody noses and some shiners later," Tony argued. "Base commander will hand out punishment. "

"What about the guy that McGee cuffed?"

"Just going to scare him for a bit then send him back. OUCH!"

Natalie frowned at him. "Sorry, did that hurt? It looked like your nose was starting to bleed again and you won't sit still!"

Tony yanked himself away from her and glared. "Son of a bitch, Callahan! Now I know why you didn't become a nurse!"

"You should go let the kid out of the car and have him face punishment with the rest of his _friends."_

"Hey...I'm in charge..."

"I know...but it's not fair to that kid. You were the idiot that got into the middle of that fight."

Tony saw a couple of the marines snicker. He shot them a glare to silence them. "You're not afraid of telling people how it is, huh?"

Natalie shook her head. "Nope. Boston girl remember?"

"We're bringing him back to NCIS," Tony snapped at her, wiping his nose with her blouse. "And not another word about it, Callahan!" His eyes never left her slender form as she made her way back towards the car.

"Spunky," one of the MP's said behind him to his partner. "In a totally hot way too."

Tony rolled his eyes and marched off. "Oh yeah...she's a real peach." As he got closer to the car he saw McGee shrink at the obvious rage in his eyes. Natalie didn't seem bothered by it. "You ever do that to me again, Callahan, I'll make sure your badge is mine."

Natalie crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't mean to apply pressure so hard to your nose. Stop being a baby."

He got into her space so fast that she gasp, bumping into the car as she attempted to get away from him. "I'm not talking about the pressure you applied to my nose or the fact that it hurt like hell. I'm talking about the blatant disrespect you just showed. Gibbs isn't here. When he isn't here _I'm _in charge and _I _want to bring the kid back to NCIS to teach him a lesson. Don't _ever _question my authority in front others like that again. Are we clear?"

She bit down on her lip and for a moment McGee thought she _might _cry. "Yes," she whispered. "We're clear."

"Good," Tony snapped, leaving her space and tossing her blouse at her. "Let's get the hell out of here."

* * *

Tension was so thick in the squad room that Gibbs probably could have cut it with a knife. _What the hell happened at Quantico? _He stood there, studying each of his agents closely. Tony's face was a hardened mask and both Natalie and McGee were eyeing him cautiously. Not too mention Tony had changed shirts and Natalie's blouse was MIA. "Everything go okay at the base?"

"Fine boss," Tony said, coldly. "Got a bloody nose but Ducky looked at it when we got back. Not broken."

"Anything else I should know about?" the team leader asked. He noticed that Natalie held her breath, a panicked look in her eyes.

"No, boss, I took care of it," Tony said, finally looking at him.

Gibbs nodded and watched as the air came out of his probationary agent in a relieved breath. Even McGee's shoulders eased when Tony went back to work without revealing much. "Well...glad to hear it...you're going to be in charge for a few more days, DiNozzo."

Tony nodded. "Sure thing, boss. You know you can count on me to keep the ship running smoothly." He smiled at the former marine for good measure. "Do you need anything else while you're down here?"

"No," Gibbs said before disappearing up the stairs to go back to MTAC, "Just make sure next time _none _of you come with injuries."

"We'll try, boss," Tony called after him. _Not making any promises since we seem to be prone to them._

* * *

For the most part the rest of the day went by without a hitch. Tony didn't converse much with Natalie or McGee, and the other two agents respected his wish to remain out of their conversations. They also didn't see or hear from Gibbs for the rest of the day. Tony knew that when Gibbs was ready to divulge what they had found out about Mossad he'd let the rest of the team know. But it was driving him slightly crazy that the boss was keeping them in the dark.

He decided to just focus on his case report from that afternoon. It was pretty straight forward, and Natalie was right-he had been an idiot for jumping in the middle of a fight with eight marines, but the punch in the face he'd gotten had been enough to stop the brawling men in their tracks. So...it did serve some ridiculous purpose. And really the pain wasn't so bad. He had worked through worse pain before without painkillers. He could work through this.

Every now and then he'd catch McGee or Natalie looking at him, but both would quickly look away when they were caught. They both looked slightly afraid he was going to go off on one of them. He really hadn't meant to be that harsh to Natalie at the base that day, but he had been angry, and hot, and his nose had been bleeding. It wasn't the first insubordinate offense that he'd faced before, but it was probably the first time that he'd reacted so hotly.

Before leaving, McGee and Natalie put their reports on the incident on his desk and were gone. Tony decided to stay behind late and get all his paperwork done, starting with signing off on his partners reports. He got up from his desk to go put the reports on Gibbs' and noticed that Natalie was standing right in front of him. "Hi," she whispered.

"Hi," he drawled slowly. "I thought I was the only one still here."

"Yeah, I forgot my cell phone," she admitted, holding it up. "I'm surprised you're still here."

Tony smiled, moved past her and put the stack of reports down onto Gibbs' desk. "According to everyone that knows me, I do my best work at night."

Natalie chuckled, softly. "Double entendre?"

"Sure. Take it as it you want it," he said with a flirty grin.

"Tony."

"Yeah?"

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry. You...you were right. I was out of line. You're the senior field agent and I should be respecting your position of authority. There is a time and place to question decisions or actions, but that was not one of them. You...you had every right to chew me out like you did. And you had every right to report me to Gibbs. So...why didn't you?"

He searched her eyes for a moment, saw the remorse in their grey depths. Ziva would never have apologized for something like what Natalie did today and he wasn't sure how to react to this. "You're a probie, Natalie. And probies make mistakes. And like I told Gibbs- I handled it. There's no need to drag him into the middle of something that was between you and me."

Natalie smiled softly. "So, we're good then?"

Tony laughed, gently and shook his head. "Yeah, we're good." He watched as her shoulders eased and started out of the bullpen. "Hey," he called after her. "Just so we're clear—you didn't forget your cell phone did you?"

"No. I...I know that apologizing is a sign of weakness, but I just...I couldn't go home knowing that it needed to be done," Natalie replied.

"Apologies aren't a sign of weakness when they're between friends," Tony informed her, watching as a smile lit up her face. He glanced at his watch. "It's late. Wanna grab some take out for dinner?"

Natalie quirked an eyebrow. "Are you inviting me back to your place? I heard that's sacred ground."

Tony grabbed his gear and slung the bag over his shoulder. "You know what—I think its time that I change a few things, so yeah. I'm inviting you back to my place."

"I accept. Can I pick your brain about all these rules and Gibbs?" she asked, her eyes filled with eagerness and earnest.

"Sure," he said, feeling a warm smile spread across his face. "Only if you pay for dinner."

Natalie smiled, slyly as they made their way towards the elevator. "You've got yourself a deal."


	12. The Damocles

**Warnings:** Spoilers for Season 7

**A/N: **Here's another update! I will be taking a break for the rest of the weekend on posting, but should be back sometime next week :) and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

**Guest-** _glad you enjoyed the chapter!_

**Dis-** _you have perfectly summed up how I feel/felt about Ziva, by the time she left I was tired of snarkiness. You know you can joke and tease with your friends/co-workers, but some of the things she said that were meant to be funny...really weren't. They were mean and insulting and usually it was Tony that was at the opposite end of it._

**NCIS Fan-** _well...she can't be perfect ALL the time now can she? :)_

* * *

Gibbs leaned against the rail outside of MTAC and watched as his team worked. So far Tony had kept them safe and sound. Not that Gibbs had any doubt in his senior field agent, but it was nice to see his beliefs affirmed. Sipping his coffee he wished he could join them. Being trapped in MTAC now for little over a week was starting to drive him crazy. At least now they had the name of the freighter they were looking for, however locals were still giving Dunham a hard time.

Vance was reluctant to send anyone else out there to help. Right now Dunham could fly under the radar, appearing to be doing recon missions. If Vance sent another team out there to help that was going to send flags up and Eli David would be on to him. He might not fully trust the Israeli, but he wanted to stay in the man's good graces. As the team and NCIS had come to realize over the years he was not a man to be reckoned with. And Gibbs, well he tended to agree. Watching his team interact right now solidified his position that they were to remain in Washington.

Natalie was still a probie, still learning and while she had been a good cop, being a federal agent on foreign soil was entirely different. Plus…Gibbs didn't want to see any of them hurt by Mossad ever again.

"Boss," Tony's voice interrupted him and Gibbs realized the SFA had joined him. "Dispatch just called. Sailor was hit by a truck. Joining us?"

"Nope," Gibbs replied, sipping his coffee. "I trust you to handle it."

"So…nothing new on Ziva? Or Mossad?"

Gibbs glared at him slightly, wondering what he'd snooped and found out. "Nothing that you need to know, DiNozzo. It doesn't concern the team. Just protecting NCIS' six."

Tony shoved his hands into his pockets. "Protecting NCIS…sounds like that involves the team to me, boss. Listen…I know Abby broke the code on Tabal's laptop. I know that Rivkin was going to Africa to murder some terrorist. Is there a specific reason you and Vance have taken an interest in this?"

"We came dangerously close to having a repeat of Ari in May, DiNozzo," Gibbs replied, firmly. "What do you think would have happened if Rivkin hadn't been drunk?"

"I'd be dead," Tony responded. "Believe me, I'm very much aware that I probably shouldn't be alive."

"Staying on top of what Eli David is up to…lessens the chance of another episode like Ari…like Rivkin."

"So that's it then…you're just keeping an eye on him? You aren't going to pack us up to go after Ziva?"

Gibbs scoffed. "No. Is that what you think Vance and I are doing up here? Planning some kind of operation to get her back?"

Tony shrugged, green eyes hardening. "Not really. But Abby…seemed insistent that's what you were doing. I guess there was always the tiny chance you were doing just that. At least you've saved me the trouble of informing you that I'm out if that's the case."

"Really? Even if you were ordered?" Gibbs challenged with a slight smirk.

"Even if I was ordered," Tony said, tightly. "I'd have to be an idiot to go after someone that wanted me dead just a few months ago."

Gibbs pat him on the shoulder and turned to go. "Better get a move on, DiNozzo. You have a sailor that was run over by a truck to investigate and I have a scheming Mossad director to baby-sit."

Tony chuckled and with a grin jogged back down the steps towards the team. "Gear up, probies! Sailor was involved in a hit and run."

"Suspect or victim?" McGee questioned, holstering his weapon.

"Victim. He's being treated at Bethesda."

"Gibbs is still with Vance?"

Tony nodded his head and with Tim and Natalie in tow, the agents made their way to the elevator. They rode it down to the parking garage in silence, while Tony looked over the basics of the case file. "Guy is lucky to be alive," he said handing the file over to McGee.

Tim scoffed, while he read the details. "I'll say. He got run over by a truck."

"F-150 to be precise."

"Whatever."

Tony chuckled as they climbed into the car. He started it up and began the trek to the Naval Hospital. He felt better knowing for certain now that Gibbs was not planning on sending them over to Africa to find Ziva. Yes, it was disconcerting that she had not contacted Abby or McGee, but she was not a member of their team now and it would be suicide to go over there to find her. Besides, she was trained to disappear. They would just be wasting resources going looking for her.

Tim tossed the case file in the backseat, so Natalie could read it, pulling Tony from his thoughts. "We'll have to have Abby look through the traffic cameras. I think there are some at the intersection that our victim was struck at."

"Might give us a license plate. Witnesses got the color of the truck but not the plate," Tony mused. "Nice thinking, McGee."

"Wow, you're in a really good mood," Tim pointed out. "What did you do to my desk?"

"What?" Tony asked innocently, then he frowned. "Nothing. You were in before me."

Tim scowled. "You could have done it last night."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I didn't do anything to your desk. Promise."

"I've heard that before," Tim snapped.

"He didn't do anything to your desk, McGee," Natalie said from the back, reading over the case file. "He left with me last night."

McGee shot Tony a funny look and Tony glared. "Not what you're thinking so get your head out of the McGutter," he grumbled underneath his breath just for McGee to hear. "But…Natalie's right…I didn't do anything to your desk. So, why don't you get on the phone with Abby and have her look at the traffic cameras McParanoid," Tony retorted, tossing his cell phone at the younger agent.

Tim, still not convinced that he was not going to find something super glued to his desk when he returned to work, dialed Abby's cell phone and waited for her to answer. While he explained his idea to her, he studied Tony's face while they drove. He seemed more relaxed than he had in a while. Gibbs' secretive nature was not helping matters either. McGee wondered if Tony knew something that he didn't but decided against pressing matters though after he hung up with Abby. It might make Tony cranky and a cranky Tony was an even more difficult man to deal with than when he was in a good mood.

So, they rode the rest of the way to the hospital in silence, something else that was unusual for Tony. It was a well-known fact that the senior field agent hated silence, it was probably one of the reasons that he never shut up. Tim was actually beginning to get concerned that Tony wasn't fine and he was putting up an act.

Tony was the one to lead the way into the hospital and to greet the Navy doctor. He flashed his credentials at her. "Hi, I'm Agent DiNozzo, this is Agents McGee and Callahan. We're here to talk to Petty Officer Peters."

"He's heavily sedated. I don't know how much help he's going to be," the doctor said with a smile. "But if you leave your number, I'd be happy to call you when he's less sedated and more capable of answering your questions."

_Oh boy, _Tim thought noticing her flirty look at Tony. _Here we go. _

"We still need to speak to him, Doctor," Tony said, firmly. "What room is he in?"

"210," the doctor replied with a frown when she realized he wasn't going to flirt back with her.

Tony thanked her and began to walk towards the room. Tim, still confused as to why Tony rejected her advances, jogged to catch up. "Tony, that Navy doctor was totally hitting on you."

"Was she?" Tony retorted, stepping into room 210. "Didn't really notice."

"Didn't notice?" Tim gasped. What the hell was going on? Tony _never _passed the advances of an attractive woman, except when he'd been in the relationship with Jeanne Benoit. _He left with me last night, _Natalie's words broke through. Was it possible? Had they really broken rule 12 with Natalie only being on the team a month? Well…sure it was possible…but…gosh this was so unlike Tony, not to be flirting, that McGee didn't know what to think as the trio entered the hospital room.

Tony closed the door to the room and looked down at the petty officer peering at him through drugged eyes. "Petty Officer Peters. We're here to ask a few questions."

Peters smiled, groggy. "Was wondering when NCIS was going to show up."

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"I was hit by a speeding truck."

Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yeah. We got that much, Petty Officer. What do you remember before you were hit?"

Peters closed his eyes for a moment. "I remember hearing the sound of a car revving up, like they were getting ready to drag race or something. And then I saw the headlights, heard a few people scream to look out and then I was flying. Everything went back after that, sir."

Tim watched as Tony made note of the Petty Officer's answer and then they made eye contact, while Natalie asked, "Can you think of anyone that would want to hurt you?"

His eyes flew open and Peters laughed. "Me? No! Well, maybe a jilted ex-girlfriend, but I don't think she'd _run _me over. Plus, she doesn't own a truck."

"Could she have borrowed one?" Tony asked, a little sarcastically.

"Sure! Maybe she rented it!" the Petty Officer snapped back.

"What's her name, wise guy?"

"Shelby Kincaid."

Tony jotted the name down. Peters glared at him. "Are we done?"

"Yeah," the senior field agent said, putting his notepad in his pocket, "for now. Don't travel too far okay."

"Don't worry," Peters snapped as the agents left, "I'm kinda tied up at the moment, sir. I won't be going anywhere."

* * *

Tony, armed with a Caf Pow, ventured down to the lab with Natalie after lunch. Abby had given up calling Natalie _Agent Callahan _all the time and she wasn't as icy towards the new agent, but she wasn't exactly buddy-buddy with her either.

"Brought something for you, Abs," Tony said, with a tight smile. "Did you find anything on those traffic cams?"

"Timmy has very good instincts," Abby said, sucking on her drink. "The cameras picked up the whole thing. I managed to get a plate number on the F-150 that hit Peters."

Natalie moved towards the big screen that Abby had projected the image of the truck on. "Doesn't look like a rental," she deadpanned.

Tony laughed and joined her in front of the screen. "What _does _it look like?" he asked, letting his elbow brush up against her arm.

"Like it was in an accident recently. And not the hit and run," Natalie said, pointing towards the back fender. "Abby can you zoom on the back fender?"

"Of course," Abby said a bit snarky as her fingers flew over the keyboard.

Tony watched as the back fender became bigger than life on the screen. It was obvious that it had been hit from behind, probably by another truck…meaning there had to be police records on the accident. "Nice catch, Nat," he said. "We can get in touch with local LEO's and ask if any F-150's were in any fender benders in the last month or so."

Natalie paused for a moment, "Nat?" she questioned.

"Yeah," Tony said, flashing one of his charming smiles, "You work with us you need a nickname…I mean Abby has Abs and Palmer the Autopsy Gremlin…and McGee…I've lost track of how many he has. I do have my favorites though…"

"I hate it," Natalie told him.

"Good," Tony shot back playfully. "You're not supposed to like it!"

Abby let out an annoyed huff. "Don't you guys have a case to solve?"

Tony squared his shoulders and turned to face her, giving her a warning glare. Abby pursed her lips together and spun on her heel, heading into the back of her lab, muttering that she was going to go do some maintenance work on her computer.

Natalie tried not to show a disheartened look in her eyes, but it was useless. And Tony picked up on it right away. He didn't say anything until they were in the elevator and on their way back to the squad room. "Don't let her get to you, Natalie," he said, gently. "Believe it or not…she didn't like me right away either. In fact…the only one that I saw her take too quickly was Kate—unless you count McGee—but I wouldn't…because they were dating."

"McGee dated Abby?" Natalie inquired, blinking in disbelief.

"Oh yeah. Even has a tattoo because of her."

"McGee got inked?"

Tony grinned as the doors opened and dropped them off on their floor. As Natalie launched into a series of questions directed at McGee about his relationship with Abby and his tattoo, the look on McGee's face was enough reward for Tony and plenty of payback for his partner spilling the beans about the Derby last year. Two really could play this game and right now, Tony was winning.

* * *

"Director, Agent Dunham would like to speak to you," the technician cited.

Vance had been in the middle of reading another report when she spoke and glumly nodded his head. Soon Chad Dunham's bearded face filled the larger than life screen in MTAC. "God, I hope you have _something _for me, Dunham."

Dunham nodded. "I think I do, sir. Finally found someone that did _business _with our freighter captain. He says that this is highly unusual for him to be gone this long."

"When was the last time he spoke to the captain?"

"May. Captain told him that he was transporting a group of Israelis for a lot of money."

_Finally, we're getting somewhere, _Vance thought. He stood and tugged on his suit coat. "Did your informant have any idea where the freighter is now?"

Dunham frowned. "Yes and no, Director. According to what he told me, the ship left port just a head of a hurricane. He doesn't have any concrete evidence but he believes that the Damocles went down, sir—with no survivors."

Vance felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. A seasoned captain, taking his ship out into the middle of a storm—that just rang suspicious. And he had a sick, sneaky feeling he knew _exactly _what happened to that crew. They didn't die in a shipwreck. They had become the next victims in a long path of death that Eli David carved. Now, he just had to make sure that NCIS never got on that path again.


End file.
